Author: TheAleosha

Greedfall

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date June 2, 2025

The story did manage to lul me with some predictable plot-twists (protagonist being a Native, his cousin sick with the plague) just to completely blindside me with betrayal of one of the companions, that ends in his death. I wasn’t prepared for this, nor did the game prepare me, as it ruins good half of side-quests. It is still brilliant, though.

What isn’t as brilliant is the battle system. Around level 15 you unlock your “ultimate” skill, which for fighters is simply a rage buff, and that’s it, really.

I’m used to games raining items on you all the time. Not Greedfall. I’ve been running with a yatagan picked from the crab-man miniboss chest for a few hours, and ended up replacing it with a two-handed sword bought from a random merchant.

What I do like about the combat mechanics, though, is a honest cleave. You hit everything with your weapon, no matter if it’s a one-handed or two-handed sword, not only the target.

Tags Greedfall

*.AVI

Conclave

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 31, 2025

Visually very impressive, and not pulling punches until the last half, at least.
It’s not a movie about church, though. Or, putting it another way, it’s the worst when it tries to be about church. But it’s a brilliant movie about management. How your organisation starts crumbling once you rely on a combination of verbal agreements and informal decisions most people are either unaware of or don’t see the sense behind.

*.BAK

AleSmith Barrel Aged Speedway Stout

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 30, 2025

I remember cachier in California laughing at me, asking if I bought a single can, albeit 500ml, for a price of six-pack by mistake. But I couple of months later I must say it was worth every of the 15$ I spent on it. This is the best beer I had since unobtainable Schorschbrau Schorschbock I brought from Switzerland.
It has almost no “head”. The smell is quite dominant, like a cold espresso. And the taste is sweet, and so smooth. And it leaves you with the warmth both in the throat and belly like the best of whiskies, and with the tranquility like the best of weed. Certainly something to bring from California next time.

Tags beer

PC Gaming

Greedfall

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 29, 2025

It’s fascinating to play Greedfall after Far Cry 6, as Far Cry 6 has breadth, but no depth, with it’s tons of repetitive and shallow missions, while Greedfall has a lot of variety in its quests, but those are few. It becomes quite obvious as you visit San Matheus. I was expected to be flooded with new quests, but there was literally one waiting for me. Also, all three royal palaces have exactly the same layout. Which might be a blessing, though, as you know exactly where to seek audience.
After Kingdom Come Deliverance, it also takes time to adjust to the fact that there’s no “property”. You can pick any loot, and if you have the pick locks skill, you can also lockpick any chest in front of everyone.
Speaking of skills, you get those rarely, and when I started the game, I picked up “Charisma”, which should have allowed me to convince people during some dialogues. The problem is, this is chance based, and if you fail, you don’t get a second attempt. So either you save/load or bribe, when it’s an option, which actually works every time.
There are companion quests, which are broken into multiple phases. Those are great, except for the fact that once accepted, you must hang with that companion until this phase is complete. Taking into account that you can have just two companions at any time, that’s quite the commitment, as I discovered while accepting quest from the “Pirate”.

Tags Greedfall

*.BAK

Hopus beer

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 19, 2025

Brasserie Lefebvre are the ones making Barbar, the “honey beer” and Blanche de Bruxelles, the “pissing boy beer”. This one is rather new, from 2023, and promises to feature 5 different types of hops.
The head is tall, two or three fingers, much taller that I prefer. For me the less gas, the better. And the color is much lighter that I’d expect, almost lemony and quite opaque. All in all, it looks more like a hazy tripple IPA than a Belgian beer. And considering the fact that IPAs are always heavy on hops, maybe it makes sense.
I know that I was mostly disappointed by Belgian beers in the past couple of months. And in terms of hops, I didn’t feel much difference. Not too bitter, but also not too complex. But in terms of taste, it is excellent. If you’d tell me it was 10% ABV, I’d believe it. It is rich, and it is smooth, and it provides nice sleepiness for at least a couple of hours. A nice surprise.

Tags beer

*.BAK

Lego McLaren P1 42172

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 18, 2025

Finally got to opening it. And it is very impressive. The entire packaging is incredibly smooth and well thought. How the two hefty manuals represent front and read half of the car, how they seamlessly blend into the lid, how flaps of the three boxes with pieces overlap to show a photo of a real P1, with a photo of the Lego model 1:1 underneath.

Putting a single bag took me an hour, but I also didn’t rush. This is the most complex Lego set for me for sure. There are parts that have to be left loosely hanging until later, and the way everythinng is held together is not so much by clicking it, but with using pins.
https://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catType=P&catString=139

Tags Lego

*.BAK

“We Cooked Every Steak to See if Wagyu is Overrated”, Fallow

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 17, 2025

Roe is probably one of my favorite restaurants in London right now. And its chefs are doing some amazing educative videos as well.
This one was about different breeds of meat cows:

The Wagyu beef that is sold in the UK is Hereford’s impregnated with embryos from Japan. Each embryo costs 3K GBP and has 33% success rate.

Belgian Blue cow has a genetic mutation that means they continue to develop muscles. The calf is so big they can’t pass through the birth canal, and thus expensive to grow.

Limousine is very economical, in terms of how fast it grows. It’s not that tasty.

*.BAK

Gulden Draak Brewmaster’s Edition

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 17, 2025

Gulden Draak is one of my favorite beers. Brewmaster is basically Gulden Draak Classic, but barrel aged. Lighter in color than the Classic. Some beers smooth away the alcohol. Not this one, here you just feel it. Wonderful beer, that reminds me why I fell in love with Belgian beers in the first place. The only problem is that I’m not sure I’d take it over Classic.

Tags beer

Mobile Gaming

Tacticus

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 17, 2025

Unlocked Tarvakh in his release event. Regular release events are doable, unlike Legendary Release Events, that are just look doable, but aren’t.

Unlocked Sarquel from requisitions. Don’t really need Dark Angels, but whatever.

Completed Indomitus Mirror campaign. This open Indomitus Mirror Elite campaign, that brings more rewards.
Completed Octarius campaign. Last fight was a bit tricky, as orcs are squishy. Again, opens Elite campaign, and more resources.

Did two “Blessed” pulls, first with the scrolls I accumulated, then with blackstone, and got… basically nothing. Okay, not true. Now I have tons of Thadeus Noble shards, I guess?

Tags Tacticus, w40k

Emulation

Cannon Fodder

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 17, 2025

This game is generally quite evil. Sometimes, you are placed just in front of some bazookas (called snipers for some reason), and your entire squad will be wiped 5 seconds in the first time.

I also thought that maybe bunkers are explained in the manual, but no. Bunkers also spew soldiers indefinitely, just like baracks, but you can only destroy them with a turret, not with regular grenades or rockets. And a turret can be destroyed with a single stray rocket or a grenade, so you are running from infinite soldiers to gun down all the rocket soldiers, and you hope that the game didn’t generate any soldiers with grenades (those are random, as far as I can tell).

Tags Cannon Fodder

*.DOC

Boy and his Dog, Harlan Ellison

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 17, 2025

It’s the case where the film is actually better than the novel.
The novel is all told from Vic’s perspective. It is set in a city. Probably the wasteland setting of the film was due to budget constraints. Also, the firefight in the gymnasium doesn’t refer to screamers at all (radioactive ghouls in Fallout universe). Instead, they decide to torch the gym and hide in the boiler room while raiders think that they died and leave them. The main bit that is missing from the novel is the concept of Over the Hill, and the politics of Down Under, “farm” and all. Also, there’s no Michael, the scary enforcer, main “horror” episode in the movie. So it’s a much simpler story, that makes the ending slightly less compelling.

Tags Harlan Ellison

*.BAK

Painting Skaven Deathmaster

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 12, 2025

This is the first miniature I’m painting outside of the starter set.
The single miniatures come without instructions, and I even didn’t find a QR code to open them online. So I had to kind of guess how to put it together. And with those miniatures, there’s much more freedom, as you have to glue the pieces instead of just joining them.
Drybrushing worked wonders on that miniature. Maybe because it’s twice as big as the Skaven from starter set. But two layers of base black paint, and then a single layer of grey and white drybrush (Dawnstone, Longbeard Grey, Wrack White) brougth a gradient I wouldn’t ever manage otherwise.

Also, because the miniature is more complex, I could try more contrast paints. Some of them work wonders, some are still quite shitty: Dreadful Visage and Apothecary White are two paints I wouldn’t buy ever again, they are too translucent to be useful.

Despite having 45 paints, I still ran out of them 😆
There are a few reasons for that. First, a lot of my paints are base/layer paints, and not contrast. And this miniature has much more segments than the smaller ones.

Tags Warhammer

*.AVI

Boy and his Dog (1975)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 12, 2025

When I started playing Fallout games back in ’97, I also read through a bunch of postapocalyptic novels. But I skipped “Boy and his Dog” somehow.
Lately, though, I stumbled upon analysis of the movie on YouTube, most likely because I watched a few Fallout 1997 retrospectives from people that discover the original games only now. And after a few minutes of the analysis, I had to watch it.

It’s a terrible movie, so I’m not surprised by the fact that no one ever quoted it. It starts with a gang of bandits raping and killing a random woman, and it doesn’t get any better.

But I can see how entire Fallout sprang from that movie, with peaceful songs accompanying the most brutal scenes. Even the loading screen from Fallout is, and I’m sorry to say it, from a pornographic movie The Boy watches in a theater for a can of sardines.

The Boy is 18 years old, and all he cares about it getting laid. He uses a telepatic connection with his Dog to find women in the Wasteland. And the Dog uses him to aquire food, as with its telepatic abilities, it also lost ability to hunt.

“Rovers” are Raiders. “Down Under” are the Vaults. “Over the Hill” is Eden.

Speaking of Vaults, Down Under is where “We Happy Few” got its inspiration from, most likely. This, and sending people “to the Farm” for infringements. And I guess “Elder’s Proclamation” also influenced Silo.

As I mentioned, the movie is badly acted. The only role worth mentioning is Susanne Benton.

Tags Boy and his Dog

PC Gaming

Greedfall

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 12, 2025

I didn’t expect this game to blow me away, but it did. Maybe because the expectations are so low nowadays. But it has this crisp introduction, that clearly outlines the character motivations and the world, without throwing walls of text or monologs at you.

Then it has this ambiguiness in quest design. Early in the game you are asked by Alchemist Guild to unmask a charlatain that sells potions. But turns out he isn’t a charlatain, but a former member of the guild. But turns out that he does sell fake potions. But only because he wants to experiment on people to try and cure the plague. But Alchemist Guild also experiment on people, with deadlier results. But now the townfolk wants to lynch him, because he was selling them fake remedies. And now you decided if you arrest him, or try to sneak him out of the inn he’s holled in, or negotiate with the mob. And all that is just a sidequest.

The fighting system is Assassin’s Creed, although I haven’t played Assassin’s Creed in such a long time it might have a changed since then. Lock, LMB to attack, RMB to parry. There’s also a rage meter that builds up and allows to unleash a more powerful attack. A mechanic I last saw in Mass Effect, I think, is that first you need to strip the armor from enemies with blunt weapons, then switch to swords to finish the job.

Tags Greedfall

PC Gaming

Far Cry 6

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 10, 2025

Completed Far Cry 6.
In an uncharasteristic moment, you’re actually given a choice if you want to shoot McKay or not, because he made a deal with the guerillas, actually. I decided to shoot him in the face anyway. He gassed Jonron, and Jonron was a waifu, despite being vegan.
Dani is then captured by the one legged general we’ve only seen in the intro some 50 hours ago. But Diego, dictator’s son, shoots the general in the head, because Dani spared him once. Doesn’t take much to get friends with this guy. Then Anton, the dictator, decided to give Dani a chance, but throws an incideary grenade into the cell. Does he just casually cary those? Also, our weapons don’t even need recovering, but I think the last bit is just laziness from the game authors.
Castillo captures Clara. We’re supposed to care about that, but she’s just a character that doesn’t do anything except introducing us to the world of Yara and then congratulating us on completing each episode. But the game does take the weapons away from us. So they can do it when they care.
We fail to save Clara, and Anton shoots her. We chase him to the top of his tower, where he kills himself and Diego.
This was probably the least satisfying ending in the entire series. For a series that loves to mess with your head, it is just so very bland. I was prepared that Dani is just a plot of Diego imagination, a kid that likes comics and baseball would imagine this guerilla that blows tanks with a minigun. Or that Dani is actually grown up Diego, and all the interjections with Anton are somehow his memories. Or that Clara is just another dictator (she never explains what is her plan after Anton is dethroned), and we have to shoot her just like El Tigre shot Lobo. Or that Diego is actually Vaas (I remember this theory based on the artwork). Or that Diego’s blood is somehow involved in producing Viviro (Viviro was invented 13 ago, same as Diego’s age). Or that Diego kills his father in the end, ending the cycle (we have the bloody gun and the baseball at the title screen after all). But no. They went down with a whimper.

Tags Far Cry

*.BAK

Brigand beer

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 7, 2025

As I’m going through my box of Belgian beers, I must say I’m mostly unimpressed. Maybe I’ve changed. Maybe not going with the “mainstream” is a mistake, and those are mainstream for a reason.
Brigand comes from Van Honsebrouck Brewery, best known for Kasteel.
I rememeber liking Brigand, when it still had a distinct bottle.

For some reason, now they have just a generic label that makes you wonder why it’s even called “brigand” in the first place. It’s smooth and nice, and left me more energised than sleepy. But yet again, not something I would buy again.

Tags beer

PC Gaming

Far Cry 6

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 7, 2025

Second region is just an exercise in bad writing. We are told that Paolo is indispensable, but the game never actually demonstrates why it is so. What happened to “show, don’t tell”? It’s unsurprising that they killed of the best characters in the game, Jonron and El Tiger. Made all the others look really bad. And those are the only two characters I actually could care about.

Pablo gets captured by The Doctor. Presumably to detransition her? Then when we try to rescue her, the Doctor captures us too, and puts a cellphone with a poison inside our belly. This one of the worst plot twists brings one of the best episodes in the game, where we ride in a car hallucinating our dead friends, that tell Dani he doesn’t care about the Revolution, and just likes shooting people. A very deep self reflection.

Then we cut out belly open and extract the phone. Not clear why it had to be a phone in the first place.
The mission where you have to follow the pipes is kind of okay. At least it’s not capturing yet another base. Then there’s the revelation that El Tigre killed one of his comrades, Lobo, because he was going to become the next dictator. As far as I remember Lobo was the name for Vaas character from Far Cry 3.

Tags Far Cry

Emulation

Cannon Fodder

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 5, 2025

Cannon Fodder is a brutal game. I played it as a kid on PC. Then came back to it in my 20’s on SNES, because it had save states. But even that didn’t help me finish it. Now, I’m making 3rd approach, at the very least, on an Amiga emulator, for a killer combination of save states and mouse.
The game might not seem like much at first sight. You point your squad where to go, and they go, and they go. You point where to shoot, and they shoot. They also can shoot on the go.
But soldiers in your squad have intertia. If you point them in a different direction, they will follow your order, but with a bit of a delay. And all it takes for them to die is a single bullet. Or a blast of a rocket. Or a grenade, which is just a few pixels, so hard to spot during a firefight. Or a roof blown from a building, that flies in a random direction. There is a lot of randomness in this game. Even the way your soldiers shoot. It’s not a straight line, but more of a fan-out pattern. Sometimes you hit the enemy first. Sometimes they hit you. And then you have to replay it all over again.

Tags Amiga, Cannon Fodder

PC Gaming

Far Cry 6

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 3, 2025

Completed half of the 2nd and 3rd regions, and I already have the entire arsenal unlocked, except the Magic Rifle. There’s literally nothing else to do.

I don’t care to prove this, but I’m pretty sure that stories for different regions were written by different authors. Story of the old guerillas from ’67 is the best one out of the three. Yes, it’s comical, but the entire gameplay is comical, so I don’t mind fighting alongside a crazy cockerel. I hate the band of rappers from the 2nd region, but Jonron and El Tigre are actually quite fun.

And storming the fort episode is awesome. I just wish the game wasn’t bogged by everything else, like capturing 30 checkpoints.

There’s this scene that shows why I appreciate Far Cry:

Yelena is supposed to be a teenager that became a revolutionary after her classmates were hanged by a general for criticizing the government. And what she does after we help her kill the general? Hangs the corpse and takes selfies.

Tags Far Cry

*.BAK

Sherry whiskies explained, First Phil Whisky

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date April 29, 2025

The most interesting bit I didn’t know about is that casks used to make sherry can’t be actually used to make whisky, because they are worn down. Instead, sherry producers specifically season casks for whiskey producers. Basically, they keep sherry in them for 2 years, sell them to whiskey distilleries, then make vinegar our of the sherry.

Tags whiskey