I like stouts. This one is oversweetened, and hits like a pillow. One can, and everything goes quiet for a while.
I think I grabbed it from Waitrose, or maybe M&S.
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Author: TheAleosha
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Cold War multiplayer
I continue to play Cold War multiplayer an hour a day.
Meta is heavily dominated by SMGs. That’s a surprise, I was expecting sniper rifles. SMGs also have the widest variety. There are just 4 LMGs, but 12 SMGs.
With the crazy customization the game provides, you can also make an improvised LMG from a SMG:
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Peppermint
Been planning to watch this for ages, without any particular reasons. Just stumbled upon a trailer, and I also like Jennifer Garner.
This is a Female Punisher, basically. Husband and daughter of a bank worker are killed by a gang of a drug dealers. Five years later, she comes for revenge.
There’s a strong influence from John Wick on how everything is filmed. Holding firearms close, shooting point-black, all that stuff.
The only interesting parts are how Jennifer treats her wounds. At one point, she uses a surgical stapler, then wraps it with a silver tape. At another point, she uses a sanitary pad to stop bleeding from a stab wound. She’s still very resilient, and survives even a bullet wound or two.
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Chainsaw Man
Started watching Chainsaw Man, and I got just two things to say:
- Anime is not dead. Or it has been resurrected
- Attack on Titan changed the world forever. Like Berserk did before it.
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Slow Horses S01
Finished watching Slow Horses.
What I can say is that it’s very British. Both the setting and the themes. “I’m not Pakistani, I was born in Birmingham”, “that’s a follie and not a medieval castle”.
Gary Oldman is brilliant, but that’s expected. He’s basically repeating Smiley’s role from “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”. Which is ironic, because the characters also directly reference John le Carre novel in the series.
Storywise, I felt like they couldn’t decide if it’s a story about fuckups, as we’re constantly been told, or about superagents, as River character seems to be able to outrun a car and overtake experienced agents in hand to hand combat with ease.
I mildly enjoyed it, as I enjoy seeing London in movies, and I’m a sucker for spy dramas. But it’s probably not for everyone.
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Gruut Wit and Corsendonk Agnus Tripel
Tried a couple of beers we brought from Belgium.
Gruut Wit was a disappointment. To me, it had zero smell and zero taste. Just poured it into the sink.
Corsendonk Agnus Tripel was surprisingly gaseous and with a very stubborn “head”, which is uncommon for a tripel. It was nice, but nothing spectacular in terms of taste to compensate for the gases.
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Euphoria S01
Watched the first two episodes.
Didn’t expect that this series will make me think. “Sex Education” or “13 Reasons Why” never did that to me.
Yes, it’s oversexualized, and that party from the first episode looked ridiculous.
But I also find that some parts strike very true. What do you do with your life if you can’t ever feel happy (unless you’re on drugs)?
Zendaya is indeed fantastic. Great range of emotions, and also great mix of them.
Another surprise: it shows what a true friendship is, in forms of Fezco and Lexi. When making a show such as this, it’s easy to paint it all black, or make unrealistically cool friends like the Latino dude from “13 Reasons”. But a true friend is someone who’s ready to piss for you in a bottle in the middle of the night.
Also, I discovered that those three are different actresses 🤦♂️
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2244205/
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1708957
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2858875
And that it is an adaptation of… an Israeli series 😬
The story feels extremely boring and generic. A teenage girl wakes up from criosleep on a planet that was due to be terramorphed. She’s looking for her father or other colonists. She also has a companion, a robodog.
It’s a sandbox about a sand planet, which I find quite ironic. There’s a lot of platforming: you immediately get double jumps, air dashes, and also introduced early to air recharges of those. During fights, you lock onto your enemies, and need to jump over their attacks. You get experience from fights, leveling up your basic weapon and your companion.
There’s also a finishing move you can pull on damaged enemies, which is basically a tug-of-war or a fishing game, where you need to pull the joystick at the right moment.
All enemies are robo-animals. Had to check that this game came a year before very similarly themed Horizon Zero Dawn.
You cannot tinker with your weapon, but you can customize four parts of your companion (head, front legs, back legs and not sure what’s the 4th, don’t care). All those are built from junk and enemy pieces you collect. There’s a lot of junk collection to be had.
The only interesting bit is some sand effects: you and your companion leave tracks in the sand, or a trail when you dash.
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Cold War multiplayer
Surprisingly, I enjoy Cold War multi-player a lot.
I didn’t enjoy Modern Warfare 2019 multi-player much, though. And I’m not a good player for sure. Not enough reaction, not accurate at all. Not sure if it’s the low skill bar or that most of the people moved to the two newer installations in the series. But I do manage to hit people here and there, and get that gun porn from customizing all the weapons.
Of course everyone looks like a bunch of clowns. That’s GenZ “expressing themselves”.
It gives that feeling of progression, though. After almost every match you get something, be it a new weapon attachment
After XCOM came out, so many games adopted its 2 Action Points system, it basically became the norm. This makes Othercide more interesting, as it uses a 100 Action Points system instead. Well, not exactly. If you go past 50 points in one turn, it will penalise you. Kind of like XCOM does as well.
Other than that, there are three classes. There are “overwatch” stances for every class. After each level up your characters get to pick one of the two skills.
All that in a black/white/red palette, and with Bloodborne-like “plague” aesthetics.
Up to this point, it’s all nice. What’s less nice is permadeath. But that’s something I still can deal with. But some of the “rescue” missions become frustrating extremely quickly. There are simply too many enemies spawned every turn.
Completed Cold War.
In Cuba, you’re given the choice of saving just one of your teammates. Why someone would save a bearded Israeli dude instead of a hot British chick is beyond me, though.
The real fun starts on the next mission, though, back in Vietnam. Adler tries to guide your memories. But you can disobey him, so he has to invent different scenarios on the fly. By the end of it, it becomes quite crazy.
The main plot twist is quite similar to Metal Gear Solid 5. Bell is an invented identity, part of the MK Ultra program. In reality, he was one of the high ranking terrorists, that got shot during the airport ambush. Later, Adler implants some of his memories and a keyphrase (hello, BioShock) in order to create a bond between him and Bell, and to control his actions.
Final mission is a slight disappointment, though. Perseus escapes, and we never even see him. In that term, the ending of Black Ops was much more satisfying.
The game is also very short. Even with collecting all the evidence, solving the puzzles and disobeying Adler in Vietnam on every turn, the campaign ends extremely quickly. Which is a shame, since that’s one of the Call of Duty games I enjoyed the most.
Now there’s a proper stealth system. You can also highlight enemies, pick locks, carry and hide bodies, and use enemies as human shields. This isn’t Hitman or Splinter Cell, of course, but still something.
Disco-arcade episode inside the Soviet base is brilliant. The moment when you go from Soviet brutalism to that neon and disco vibe:
Storywise: US decided to mine all the major European cities with neutron bombs, in case Soviets invade. Now a Soviet agent stole one of those bombs.
Interesting that they tie in Zakaev, the main villain from Modern Warfare.
The game does switch between characters. We play a bit as Mason in Yamantau, and get his signature glitches. Then we play as a KGB mole, Belikov, for a while.
Attachment mechanics in Call of Duty were always a bit wonky. So there’s no surprise that some Soviet soldiers have AK-47 so much customized it becomes RPK-74:
While finding some cool weapons like the Hand Cannon is a lot of fun, it’s also a bit pointless, since you don’t have a loadout before a mission.
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Lambiek Fabriek Oude Kriek Jart Elle
As can be expected from a lambic beer, it’s very sour. And also very foamy. Not too sweet though, which is great for a kriek.
Worth trying some other lambic from this brewery. But not this one.
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Daraku Tenshi
Another obscure fighting game. Uncharacteristically gritty: edgy characters, dimmed palette, even blood. Plays like SNK’s Art of Fighting: rather slow, almost no projectiles.
Rare case where prerendered backgrounds actually look good. The animations are outright impressive. There’s one particular stage, in a bar, where one of the tables is flying into the camera. That’s something Metal Slug pulled, but I don’t remember other games trying to do it.
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Virtua Fighter
Surprisingly for a very well know game, it isn’t emulated well at all.
MAME has collision issues. And I mean real issues, like a lot of strikes passing through opponents. Saturn emulation is iffy as well.
The game is impressive to this day, though. It’s a game from ’93, and they modeled all fingers, animated hair and fabric, like Sarah’s ponytail or Akira’s headband.
Unfortunately all of the versions lack training mode. It’s pretty hard to practice moves while fending off the opponent.
My impression is that although animations are super impressive, the mechanics are somewhat lacking. I was able to beat most of the opponents by simply crouching, and many of them, except Akira, Jeffrey and maybe Sarah, had a hard time hitting me.
Black Ops is probably my favorite part of Call of Duty series. At least the first two. And Cold War doesn’t disappoint.
It’s 1981, but we deal with an KGB agent that was active since 1943. Must be quite old by now.
Interesting that there are two perks you can choose at the beginning of the campaign. You can also customise your character a bit. Not a fan, I prefer the approach some other Call of Duty games took, where you switch between predefined characters. But whatever.
We go back to 1968, Vietnam, of course. I like how the weapon choice is more subtle: you’re given M16, but if you look around the base, you can find a Stoner 63 and some other arms.
I’m not sure the part where you pilot a helicopter was necessary.
In any case, it gets show down pretty quickly.
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Choose a main series – rooflemonger
Fantastic breakdown for different Samurai Shodown characters.
And another video for Virtua Fighter 5:
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Brasserie Dupont Beer Biere du Miel
A much welcome alternative to Barbar, another Belgian honey beer.
Stronger than it looks, 8% ABV.
Has a more “burn honey” taste than Barbar, in my opinion, more resembling a honey cake.
Should be available in the UK from BeersOfEurope.
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Brew By Numbers 100 Baltic Porter
As you’d expect from Brew By Numbers and Imperial Stout. Smooth, a bit like coffee or chocolate, and kicks like a mattress.
Comes in a 250ml can, that lessens the kick somewhat.
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Monster Prom
It’s a dating sim, but with cute teenage monsters. You have a werewolf athlete, a hipster vampire, slutty ghost, prim mermaid, and bunch of other characters.
Probably my favorite is the Elder Godess Zoe:
The narrative is suggestive, but not explicit. And nonsensical, as any dating sim goes. Nobody asks why a four hundred year old vampire attends college, or how a ghost girl gets drunk every night (ok, she actually posesses people and makes them drink).
What makes it slightly more interesting than a visual novel is that your character has stats, and they are visual. So you can see how much “Charm” your character has, and by picking certain activities, you can boost stats accordingly. Which makes it into a bit of a management sim, I guess.
As far as the gameplay goes, though, I found it quite tiresome. In visual novels, even if you don’t strike the right answers, you get some ending. Here, even though I knew already what I was doing, I would still get “fail” all the time. So, it stopped being fun for me pretty quickly.