This music video is so bad it’s actually good:
Author: TheAleosha
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Rise of the Tomb Raider
Ironic, that Lara supposed to be some kind of archaeologist, as she throws a Soviet truck into the abyss just to tear the door of an ancient church she was trying to get into.
The best part of the game are optional tombs. Those contain some interesting environmental puzzles. While the main storyline is mostly Lara wasting countless mercenaries.
Finished the “Baba Yaga” DLC. If there’s a single word: it’s “predictable”. But still fun, at least, with all the ΠΈΠ·Π±ΡΡΠΊΠ° Π½Π° ΠΊΡΡΡΠΈΡ Π½ΠΎΠΆΠΊΠ°Ρ and Baba Yaga flying in her ΡΡΡΠΏΠ°.
Of course it’s the girls grandma all along, who figured out how to produce hallucinogens from plants, making all her enemies see ghosts and fables.
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Captain America: Civil War
Clash between “two good guys” was already tried in Avengers 2, between Iron Man and Hulk. And someone decided it’s an opportunity to make an entire movie out of it. Just without Hulk.
Main conflict can be described as “Lawful Good vs Chaotic Good”. Irony being that a rather chaotic Iron Man is on the side of Lawful.
One of the main problems is that since it’s a Captain America movie, there’s a lot of Winter Soldier in it. I don’t like how Sebastian Stan plays, and his superhero is boring as well. The only interesting part about him is this piece of hardware he totes as some point:
The “threat of the week” is revealed an hour into the movie. And honestly, it doesn’t even sound that threatening. What’s a few Russian assassins after you dealer with a full scale alien invasion and an army of robots?
Twist with them being offed in their sleep is actually good, though.
Idea of a “regular guy” trying to get revenge on superheroes for inadvertently killing his family is alright. At least it’s not yet another Ultron this time.
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Rise of the Tomb Raider
The snow is impressive. Hair is also awesome. Everything else: not so much. Lara looks like Ellen Page.
She’s annoyingly obsessed with her deceases father, talking to him all the time.
The bad guys are called Trinity and are literally Templars from Assassin’s Creed. Their leader is Konstantin, a Russian with a scar. And Ana, Lara’s stepmother, is his sister.
There are remnants of DLCs and lootboxes. So although Lara finds a scrappy Nagant revolver, she imediattely gets access to Colt Python as well. And there is some card-gacha system, which I don’t even try to understand.
It’s funny how trained mercenaries scream “Push her back!” as they see Lara. An one-girl-army.
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Neo Geo Misadventures
Can’t make this stuff up. A day after I put together my SuperGun Neo Geo setup, my consolized Neo Geo lost by Royal Mail arrives back. It was in transit since 29th of July, almost 2 months, and the Royal Mail itself admitted it was simply lost. At least that resolves my issue of not having a proper shell for my board.
Just for the fun of it, I decided to see if it boots. The reason I sent it back was that it wasn’t even showing the boot screen. And it does!
Look what 5 months in Spanish Inquisition does to you. Anyway, it shows the 00D00000x555 error:
I managed to get the malfunctioning motherboard out of the shell, and put the working motherboard inside. So now I have a fully working consolized MVS, it seems.
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Darksiders 3
Completed Darksiders 3.
What that game seriously lacks is any kind of self-irony. There isn’t much humor to begin with, and all of it is so… heavy.
Gluttony boss second phase was super annoying. At first I thought that I was doing something wrong, and the huge kraken wouldn’t suck down the mines. Turns out it’s just an awkward boss fight.
And that’s not the only thing awkward in this game. Whip swings are also working maybe half of the time, which makes every platforming puzzle a huge pain.
Tornado that says “thank you” after you blow it seriously puzzled me. And not only me.
The storytelling is bad. Fury seems to be enraged by her steed being killed. But we, as players, seen this steed for half a minute. So we can’t share those emotions.
She also doesn’t evolve as a character. At the beginning of the game, she’s rash and despises humanity simply because she’s physically superior, being a Nephilim. By the end of the game she’s also rash, but just has better skills (that’s why she manages to defeat Wrath the second time she fights him), and she’s… what, impressed by human ability to build tall buildings? Not much of a development, is it?
You build your game around the concept of Seven Deadly Sins. Fine. But then, why Pride is their leader? Why do they even have a leader? And why Envy has four arms and wields the weapons of other Horsemen? This is completely incoherent.
I really wanted to like that game. But besides the visuals, there really isn’t much to like.
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Eye of the World, Robert Jordan
I’m too old for fantasy, I guess. All those names of people and places I cannot possibly spell, like “Nine-eve” or “Emmon’s Field“.
It feels like Jordan was paid by word. Can’t count the number of times he repeats the word “gleeman”. And all those passages about a song called Drunken Peddler was called Tinker in the Kitchen in this village. Why should I care?
It’s interesting that the author split Gandalf in two: there’s Moraine, who has the magic, and then there’s Tom the Gleeman, that had the talk.
The best part of the book is actually the fables. Legend about Emmon’s Field or about the wolves, or about this “King Arthur” that hated witches is far more engaging than anything else.
Matt quickly turns into a Gollum. Just with an encrusted dagger instead of a ring.
For fantasy, there’s a certain lack of imagination. They all drink tea, and smoke tobacco. Literally tobacco. And traveling people are just gypsies. And Children of the Light are just Inquisition.
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Neo Geo Misadventures
Attempt to get a shell for the motherboard turned out to be a fail. Bought MV1-B shell for MV1-A board, because there were no MV1-A shells available, and those look very similar with their parallel card slot. But MV1-B shell is slightly narrower, so MV1-A board doesn’t fit in.
But other than that: it’s alive!
The board, the card, SuperGun, PSU, gamepad – everything put together and working.
And the graphic issues are gone. This is beyond awesome.
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ΠΡΠΏΡΡΡΡΡ, ΠΊΠΎΠ½Π΅ΡΠ½ΠΎ. Π’ΠΎΠ»ΡΠΊΠΎ Π½Π΅ Π² ΠΡΠ±Π°ΠΉ, Π° ΠΏΠΎΠ΄ ΠΠΎΠ½Π΅Ρ. Π Π½Π΅ Π½Π° Π΄ΠΎΠ»Π³ΠΎ π₯°
Π’Ρ Π΄Π°Π²Π°ΠΉ ΡΠ°ΠΌ Π³Π»Π°Π²Π½ΠΎΠ΅, Π½Π΅ Π½ΠΎΠΉ π
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Darksiders 3
Managed to beat Avarice, Sloth and Lust. All of those bosses aren’t spectacular, but are fine. Avarice jumps between columns and tries to hit you with a bathtub.
Sloth is held by a lot of crabs, then is fought like any “dragon” from Dark Souls.
Lust is your typical “fencer”, but summons a hammer-wielding angel once his health gets low.
The Kraken mini-boss was super-annoying, though. You’re told to hit the eyes, but when you hit them, nothing happens. Turns out you need to use esoteric autoaim mechanic to hit them all at once. Don’t base your bossed on mechanic you never explained properly.
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Frozen Musical
This Friday we went to see the Frozen Musical.
Interesting details: support cast as nature elements. At the very beginning, they act as ocean waves. And at the very end they represent blizzard.
Also was impressed by the elk. There seems to be just a single person operating it standing on all fours, but it also moves its head and eyelashes. That’s some coordination.
Technically, it’s less impressive than Beauty and the Beast Musical. Maybe because the stage is more “general purpose”. There are a few objects moving from the left and right, like Elsa’s icicles, but nothing as complex.
Kids loved the snowman puppet. I was again surprised for some adult jokes, like during Prince and Anna song. But I guess you have to keep everyone entertained, not just kids.
Another surprise: Samantha Barks that plays Elsa is just 31. I was sure she looks good for her forties. But maybe it’s just the makeup.
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Razer DeathAdder V2 Pro
Got myself a new mouse. Wanted something that could be connected wired as well as wirelessly, so I could control multiple devices using the same mouse. I like DeathAdder shape, and I dislike the separate buttons on V3. So, I went for DeathAdder V2 Pro.
After DeathAdder Chroma I owned for years, Razer DeathAdder V2 Pro feels surprisingly cheap: it’s lighter and the plastic is not soft-touch. Funny how 10 years ago you had customizable weights you could put in your mouse to make it heavier, while now every mouse makes competes how light they can make their mouse.
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Heroes of Might&Magic VI
I begin to understand what they tried to do. Which doesn’t mean I like it. The authors added a global experience that is shared across campaigns. And that experience allows you to pick better traits at the start of your next map.
There are also artifacts called Dynasty weapons which you find through the campaign. Those are also shared across all your heroes. And those artifacts have their own global experience across all campaigns. Those break the campaign completely. The only thing cool about them is that the hero is shown in cutscenes holding that particular weapon.
In the first mission of the Infreno campaign, you end up turning into a demon and battling an entire army alone.
In the second mission of Orcs campaign, there’s an interesting turn of events: you’re given two mutually exclusive objectives, and depending on which you complete, your hero receives a class specialization. Don’t remember this in any other Heroes game.
Why do I hate Uplay?
You have to login into it every time you start the game after restart.
It limits you to 10 saves. I’m not joking. 10 saves.
If your connection is interrupted, you’re kicked out of your singleplayer campaign. If you were in a battle, you have to replay it from the beginning.
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Rings of Power S01
Galadriel plot is full of coincidences. Her jumping into the ocean without any planned, picked up by some random survivors of a shipwreck that just happened to be escaping from the orcs she hates so much, then picked up again by some ship.
Eldond plot with dwarfs is brilliant, though. From Elrond taking on a challenge he can’t win and not winning, to grudge because as and elf. For him it was okay to disappear for 20 years, to secrets from the elves.
Not sure what to make of the hobbit plotline. They act as a comic relief. A good one, though, I must admit.
Wanted to try something new and interesting from BrewDog.
Layer Cake Marshmallow & Chocolate Stout wasn’t the right choice, though.
The stout part was fine. But the marshmallow is too overpowering to enjoy.
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Neo Geo MVS misadventures
Royal Mail admitted that they’ve lost the package that was shipped back more than a month ago from Spain, with my non-functioning Neo Geo MVS.
The good news is that I received a refund, and it took me just a couple of days.
The bad news is that the maximum refund is 65GBP, while I paid around 200GBP for the console.
The good news is that the seller already shipped me a replacement board, free of charge, which is very generous of him.
The bad news is that this is a naked board. No video output, no gamepad ports, no power supply, no enclosure. Now I’ll have to source everything by myself.
The board I received is MV1A. It comes as two separate boards, that you connect at a right angle. So your cartridge is put parallel to the motherboard.
There’s also a newer MV1C board, which looks smaller at least on photos, and consists from a single board, so the cartridge slot is on the motherboard, and the cartridge is put in a vertical position.
https://wiki.neogeodev.org/index.php?title=MVS_board_types
https://www.arcade-projects.com/threads/neo-geo-mvs-motherboard-pcb-comparison-chart-for-consolization.5904/
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Heroes of Might&Magic VI
After many years, I decided to give another chance to Heroes of Might&Magic 6. When I first played it, it felt that the campaign was completely broken. And not only to me.
Enemy hero would come at you with a huge army, and even if you manage to beat him once, he would amass it again at an incredible speed. Not sure if that was balanced out somewhat. But the only way I managed to beat some of the sieges is by creating a bucket brigade of heroes passing armies from one another as quickly as possible. Obviously, this is extremely boring.
Also, there is still a problem that the combat is incredibly slow. Units are too sturdy, and you just spend turn after turn trading blows.
They did invest a lot into a storyline, but it is still a mess.
The story follows duke Slava and his five children, representing the different factions in the game. How one of his children ends up being a barbarian, another an undead necromancer, a third one a demon, and fourth a crazy fanatic (although this one is kind of obvious)? Well, that’s a long story. And it’s not told in any order.
For example the first campaign after the tutorial is Necropolis, playing as ressurected Anastasya. But her brother executes her for assassinating their father only in the 2nd campaign.
In the 3rd campaign we play as Irina, a magic user that is released from a cell where her husband put her by her brother from the 5th campaign. Confused already?
The differences between Tekken 3 for Playstation 1 and for the arcades turned out to be quite astonishing. Even more than Virtua Figher 2, I must say. I didn’t notice that previously, even though I’ve seen Tekken 3 arcade cabinet live a few years ago.
If there’s one detail to note, it’s the fingers. In PSX version most characters have stubs for their hands.
But in the arcade version you can see fingers, which is very impressive, considering the age of the game.
It plays fine on MAME 2016. The difficulty isn’t overwhelming, like in some other arcade titles, and I even managed to beat the entire game with a few retries.
Funnily enough, the final boss, Ogre, went down quicker than pre-final boss Heihachi. And the second phase for Ogre was easier than the first. Maybe that’s just because I’m a natural with Hwoarang, though. It’s the only character in Tekken series I grasp pretty well.
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About Buriki One
Obscure fighting for the Hyper Neo Geo 64 arcade:
The craziest part is that the author of the video actually bought the arcade and made his own fighting stick, it seems.
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About Primal Rage 2
Today I discovered that there were plans for a sequel of Primal Rage fighting game. And apparently there’s even a playable version of it.
As some may remember, Primal Rage was basically Mortal Kombat with dinosaurs (and a couple of huge apes).
Interestingly here they switched to humans that sometimes turn into dinosaurs from the original game. They even switch names when that happens.
Can’t say it’s a shame that fighting never came out. But it’s a wonder someone managed to preserve as much.