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Author: TheAleosha
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Skipping breakfast
Strangely enough, I got accustomed to skipping breakfasts. Funny, because we’re taught that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and all that. I would still drink coffee, and sometimes eat something around 11. But often, I’m alright until 2PM. And sometimes I even feel better without breakfast.
Finished listening to Consider Phlebas. On one hand, I was surprised this book was written in ’87. It seems to be 10 years ahead of its time at least.
But the ending left me feeling unsatisfied, in an almost Warhammer 40K manner. You see, in Warhammer 40K, different factions usually chase an ancient artifact. In case of “Consider Phlebas”, it’s an artifact alright, although not ancient, but brand new: unique kind of AI, that managed to teleport itself into a planet, something no other AI managed to pull previously.
There’s a lengthy sequence of firefight for that artifact between humans and a couple of 3 meter tall warlike “Idiran”. Some people get killed. The protagonist decides to keep one of the Idirans captive. It escapes, and kills or mortally injures everybody else, besides a single crew member, that manages to return the AI to her people.
But then, the AI doesn’t seem to play any role in the ensuing war. Just like in W40K, where every artifact gets destroyed “because Chaos”, or, in other words, because no singular even can have any effect on the overarching story.
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Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer
The game does offer some interesting ideas around leveling weapons. Some weapons are unlock by leveling up your character, that hasn’t changes.
But in Cold War, most of the weapons had same set of upgrades which you had to unlock for each. And the way to unlock weapons is that you use weapons from the same category.
In Modern Warfare 2, you unlock weapons by “platform”. AK74 has the same platform as RPK, so you have to level up the former to unlock the later.
Also, leveling up a weapon unlocks attachments that are shared between all weapons. You can add a silencer to your LMG, but only if you unlock it by leveling up a particular sniper rifle.
Most attachments also support tuning, which is a bit mindboggling for me. That means that not only the attachment provides some tradeoffs, like accuracy versus Aim Down Sight speed, but you can also make those tradeoffs more prevalent.
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Sinking City
Completed Sinking City.
There’s a funny pice of self-awareness in the dialog with the police officer that explains why he dislikes the protagonist:
In most games, “choices” are about either being an alright guy or a complete asshole. In Sinking City, they are sometimes more subtle, and I like it.
At one point we need to choose between a necromancer that resurrects the dead to torture them and a Mayan vampire. Torturing dead people – bad. Eating people at night – also bad.
In another quest, you can either give away the real killer, a decent guy who committed a crime only because his family was held hostage, or frame a politician that plans to poison his mother. I see clear Witcher influence here.
Speaking of choices, though, what you did throughout the game doesn’t affect the ending. You just pick one of the three available, and that’s it. I’m glad the were some bossfights in the middle of the game:
Something I wish the game would make more fuss about are the weapons. They’re given to you during some key sequences, but you don’t actually get to see the process. A character would say “here’s something”, and you need to go to your inventory to discover that you’ve been awarded a Tommy Gun.
Also, what slightly ruined the experience for me is that all the investigations are basically the same. You find the clues. You recreate the sequence of events, which is almost never challenging. You unlock that secret wall. I wish the “puzzle solving” would somehow ramp up. But it never does.
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Arcane S01
What can I say? It’s absolutely phenomenal. Everything. The storytelling. The visuals. The animation. The fact that they managed to make compelling characters out of a spinoff of a spinoff.
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Modern Warfare 2 (2022) multiplayer
Me before Modern Warfare 2 (2022) free trial:
– Why nobody likes it?
Me after the free trial:
– Oh, OK, now I see…
The most played Cold War mode is Demolition. It’s fun, because it requires some teamwork: one team needs to blow two bombs, another denies them. In Modern Warfare 2… there’s no Demolition.
Instead, everybody plays on a map called Shipment, which is so tiny that your enemies can spawn on top of you. So it’s a constant bloothbath.
The funny part is that since the map is so small and requires no skill, I’m constantly at the top, just firing my LMG in all directions.
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Sinking City
Early in the game you meet a librarian with her mouth sewn. Later, there’s an interesting sidequest related to her, where you need to hunt the witch that did that to her. There’s even a boss fight and a video sequence leading to this, which is not something I’d expect from a sidequest. Leaves an impression.
There are infested areas, where you encounter more monsters and supposed to find more loot. But the mechanics work in such a way that you usually waste more ammo that gain. So I just tend to keep away from those areas.
For half of the game we’re looking for that antropologist that would help us understand the visions. And a few minutes after we find her, she just… drowns. What a disappointment.
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Consider Phlebas, Iain M. Banks
I’ve been listening to this book for quite a long time now, but still haven’t formed an opinion on it.
It is certainly well written, albeit a bit lengthy on details. It has some interesting ideas: the protagonist can change his appearance, albeit it takes him a few days to look like someone else. He also has implanted poisonous nails and spit.
The intergalactic conflict is between basically humans and a warrior race, but the hero is on the side of the gorillas, because he thinks that humans rely on their supercomputers too much.
But all in all, it’s a pirate story that would fit Stevenson, and I mean Robert Louis Stevenson. The hero is ejected during a battle between two battleships, picked up by a basically privateer crew, gets shipwrecked on a cannibal island. Escapes to follow the privateer captain to basically a poker game. Even him taking over captains identity is exposed so quickly its insignificant.
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Sinking City
I know it would be a delight. And it really is.
The name is an obvious reference to the Sunken City. And the game is full to the brim with those references, not just Lovecraft, but also Poe (of course), Heinlein, and others.
But the actual city is also half flooded with water. So, sometimes we travel on foot, other times – on a boat. Luckily the boat spawns near every harbor.
Interesting part is that you have a map, but no automarkers. Instead, you’re given description of places, and you need to guess where are the point of interests on the map.
Bullets act also as currency. I think that was the same for the first Metro.
As a private eye, a most of our time we spend on investigations. Investigations are usually split into two parts. First, you find all the clues in the area. Then you need to recreate the sequence of events. Which isn’t really hard, to be honest, not close to Obra Dinn, as there are usually just 3-4 events. Again, you usually aren’t told where to go. You need to search different archives for clues: police, newspaper, asylum, and others. It’s another minigame, where this time you need to find an article or a profile based on a couple of hints.
Dropped on the Deacon boss. I like the art style, but the combat is very repetitive, and the boss battles are not intuitive. Simply stopped enjoying it at some point.
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Chainsaw Man
If the first half of the season was impressive to say the least, the second half is mindblowing.
It’s an incredible muscle flex.
Basic principles of animation is that frames are expensive, backgrounds are cheap. You can have a single background for thousands of frames. That’s why you generally avoid “camera movement” in animation: it moves the background.
And that’s exactly what they’re doing here. They rotate the camera, in a rather mundane scenes, or show scenes from different angles. Something common to movies, although still not cheap. And extremely rare for anime.
What else did they do? Unique ending for every episode. Again, that’s something you just don’t do. Animation is expensive! So, you draw one outro, and use it for 6, 12, maybe even 24 episodes. But those crazy bastards decided otherwise.
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Vocation Honeycomb Chocolate Stout
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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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.