One Happy Team…

Author: TheAleosha

  • Arkham Knight

    The boss fight with Arkham Knight is… a set of races. Not kidding. You need to race and excavator through tunnel obstacles three times. Luckily, it isn’t very hard, otherwise I’d be mad.

    Batman-Arkham-Knight-2023-01-23-20-33-23-51-DVR-mp4-000437-516
    Oh, and that’s after you beat him in… a sneak tank battle. Yes, you need to sneak on his megatank multiple times 🤷‍♂️

    Batman-Arkham-Knight-2023-01-22-16-08-44-41-DVR-mp4-000428-999
    There is literally a teary episode where Batmobile is torn by an excavator. Which is not issue, we get a spare half an hour later, just in different color.

    Batman-Arkham-Knight-2023-01-23-20-35-17-52-DVR-mp4-000153-000
    Then there’s a second phase, where Knight tries to snipe you, while you sneak up to him. Four times, no less.

    Batman-Arkham-Knight-2023-01-23-20-41-34-54-DVR-mp4-000121-499
    (more…)

  • Medieval Misconceptions: Sex

    A few notes:
    The purpose of this hat is literally to face-lift.
    Woman was considered appropriate if her cleavage wasn’t lower than her armpit.
    Confessors were handed manuals listing various sexual deviations. That didn’t give anyone any ideas, I’m sure.
    One of a very few reasons a lady could get a divorce was if her husband couldn’t perform in bed. He had to prove himself, in front of a few crones. Or maybe those were MILFs? Who knows.
    Also, relatives witnessing consumation or at least hearing had similar purpose: so no side could break the marriage.
    Illiterate didn’t mean “cannot read”. It meant “cannot read Latin”, which is a different thing, one must agree.

  • Arkham Knight

    There are tons of minigames, most of them annoying. I already mentioned tank battles. There’s a variation where you need to hold off waves of enemy tanks. There are also car chases, where you need to shoot or ram jeeps and APCs. There are circuit races, where you need to ride on the walls and you can switch obstacles.
    In this version, Jason Todd, the less successful Robin, is shot by Joker, not beaten to death. Doesn’t make much difference, really. And Joker is unreliable narrator anyway.
    Speaking of unreliable narrators, one of the main themes is that Batman is constantly lying to everyone. When Barbara / Oracle gets kidnapped, he lies to Robin, who’s her boyfriend, about that. Then when Scarecrow forces her to commit suicide, he hides this from Robin as well. Finally, after all the Joker-pretenders get killed by Old-Man-pretender, he tricks Robin into a cell.

    Batman-Arkham-Knight-2023-01-21-23-35-31-35-DVR-mp4-000331-498
    Slightly annoying that often there’s no indication what you need in order to start a mission. Some of the Riddler’s missions are available before you can bring the Batmobile to the island, for example.d

    The game still crashes frequently, 7 years after the release. The only solution is to disable nVidia GameWorks completely.
    (more…)

  • Arkham Knight

    I couldn’t understand why I have a feeling of dejavu from playing Arkham Knight. Did I already play it once? Then I remembered there was the Arkham Origins that I actually played, which was simply too boring.
    The batmobile is a total car porn. Interesting that they added guidelines, like in many racing games nowadays. Jumping from roof to roof in a car is not my cup of tea, though.
    “I need more tanks in my Batman game!” said no one ever. But still, here we are, with endless “tank” battles.

    Batman-Arkham-Knight-2023-01-17-22-40-36-05-DVR-mp4-000054-499
    At first I thought it’s called “Arkham Knight” because Batman gets a new, armor-like suit. But turns out there’s also a villain that calls himself Arkham Knight. To add to the confusion, he also looks like a futuristic version of Batman.

    Batman-Arkham-Knight-2023-01-18-18-01-36-03-DVR-mp4-000342-134
    Joker is back.

    Batman-Arkham-Knight-2023-01-18-22-13-12-08-DVR-mp4-000428-999

    But not exactly. Although he died in the previous game, now he lives rent-free in Batman’s head. Something to do with Jokers blood turning others into Jokers, and Batman infected. And I’m not joking about that.

    Batman-Arkham-Knight-Screenshot-2023-01-18-22-08-32-74
    One interesting bit is that they recreate Joker shooting Oracle from “Killing Joke” comics.

    (more…)

  • Redneck Rampage

    Another Build Engine shooter that I never actually played.
    There’s an opensource called Raze that allows to play it nicely on modern PCs.
    I found Redneck Rampage to be less sleek than Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior or Blood.
    For example, there are some weird decisions on the first level.
    You need to blow a wall with explosives to progress. This isn’t a secret or anything. I guess if you run out of explosives, you just need to restart.
    Then, there are two locked doors, but they aren’t color-coded, as far as I could tell, so after getting a key, you just need to check which door it opens. And the whole purpose of the first locked room is to store the key for the second one.
    Then, you find your brother, but the level doesn’t end. The only way to complete it is to hit your brother with a crowbar. Not to shoot him, that’s a Game Over. Had to check the manual for that one. The end the second level, you don’t need to hit him, though. But you do need to hit him on the 3rd.
    Combat is extremely random. Sometimes it would take a single shot from a shotgun to down an enemy. Sometimes it would take two.
    One thing I didn’t see in other Build games: moveable crates. Sometimes you expect to push them to make a platform and progress further.

    (more…)

  • 20th Century Boys

    I finally finished reading 20th Century Boys. I thought I finished reading it, then I discovered there’s also 21th Century Boys, two more volumes that complete the manga properly.


    That was one of the first mangas I’ve ever read. As early as 2003. When just 4 volumes were translated.
    By the 16th volume or so, I felt that the author started to get tired of himself. Reuse of same poses, and same twists over an over again.


    But still, it’s a classic.

    Notice how almost every character gets a redemption arc in the end.
    Even Number 13.

    Even Sadakiyo.

    Even Manjome.

    It’s never late to say you’re sorry.

    (more…)

  • Midnight Mass

    Finished watching Midnight Mass.
    One episode that struck me really hard was when the Old Lady, Mildred, gets cured of her dementia and recognizes her daughter again. And the daughter just asks her: “- Mom?”
    We are our memories. Without them, we’re just bags of meat and bone.
    In Episode 7, there’s an interesting continuation to the “monologs on the sofa” from Episode 4. Riley and Erin discuss the nature of death. Riley then presents death from the biological standpoint: organs failing, release of hormones. Erin presents the Gnostic standpoint: after death our soul raises that is wrapped in love. Finally, in Episode 7 Erin as she dies presents a third standpoint: from the “physicist” point of view, there’s no such thing as life or death, we are just a collection of atoms, and atoms are mostly empty, so we are walking emptiness. And from the Cosmos point of view, or “lives” are so short we may as well not exist at all.
    By the end, Warren Flynn, The Young Brother, says another sharp bit:
    “- If I’d known at that dinner,
    the last dinner, I would have been different”. We rarely know that it’s the last time we see someone we love.
    This is something Mildred already addresses, though, when she speaks with Father Paul in the church at the beginning of the episode.
    “That’s how it’s supposed to work. It’s supposed to be over.”
    Vampire stories are usually just a vessel. Often, just for erotic fantasies about “dangerous but handsome men”. This time: about coping with aging, mortality, addiction, guilt.

  • Atari Jaguar – What Happened?

    The most intersting bit in this video is that Atari Jaguar was marketed as a 64bit system, because it had 2 32bit processors.

    32+32=64 🤦‍♂️

    It also had a third CPU, Motorola 68000, same as Sega Genesis. Some developers didn’t care much about learning a new architecture, so the entire game was running on the CPU, which explains why many games on Jaguar looked like they were running on Genesis.

  • 20th Century Boys

    “Becoming an adult means forgetting and moving on to the next thing”

    If there’s one character more annoying than Kanna, it’s Koizumi. But I think she’s made like that on purpose: stupid teenage groupie that constantly gets into trouble.

     

    Interesting how from 13th volume the manga changes its tone, from mystery to apocalyptic. And it was written in 2003, long before COVID.

     

    Then it goes back to mystery, with Friend seemingly resurrected. Then to postapocalyptic, with another timejump.

     

    (more…)

  • Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson

    Finished reading Mistborn.

    Reminds me of Hunger Games a lot. It’s enjoyable as long as you read it, but once you stop, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
    Not much to add to my previous post, really. The most annoying part is how Vin simply states that “Eland is a good man” and she “loves him”. And the rebel leader makes some strategic decisions based on that. Yeah, sixteen year old girls in their first ever relationship are known to be such a good judge of character.
    There are some good twists at the end:
    (more…)

  • Stratford Blue Cheese

    This Christmas we discovered the Stratford Blue Cheese at Waitrose, and it is an absolute delight. Something in between brie and stilton. Available at Tesco and Waitrose.

  • Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

    After success with Mortal Shell decided to give Sekiro a try. This is certainly not “Dark Souls in Japan”. Maybe “Bloodborne in Japan”, but also no. Combat system is heavy on parries, a technique I never bothered with in Souls. There’s no stamina, and not “bloodstains”. However, there are “estus flasks”.

    SEKIRO-SHADOWS-DIE-TWICE-Screenshot-2023-01-05-17-17-30-80
    There is a surprising amount of vertical movement. Jumps, double jumps and even a grappling hook. A small surprise there, though, is that Wolf doesn’t catch on ledges automatically. This isn’t Assassin’s Creed or Uncharted.
    What bums me, though, is how the game punishes you for dying in so many ways: lost experience, lost money, and key NPC’s getting sick. Not sure I have the patience for this.
    (more…)

  • Neo Geo MVS

    Some random notes:
    You can have both English version of Metal Slug and red blood. Just need to enable blood using Soft DIP Switches. To access them, press B+C+D
    161-in-1 cartridge is weird. There’s Shock Troopers 2, but not Shock Troopers 1. There’s Sengoku and Sengoku 3, but not Sengoku 2.
    Aero Fighters 3 is buggy. Not sure if it’s the ROM that was put on the cartridge or the game itself, but sometimes both you and the enemies become invincible.

  • 20th Century Boys

    The manga has it’s ups and downs. Kanna as a character annoyed me, with her “Lend me your strength” and having those kind of “dialogs”:

    But then there’s an absolutely brilliant story of Sadakiyo, who was always ignored by his classmates, and the only person that was kind to him was his teacher. Now all the people forgot what he looked like, but when he visits his teacher in old folks home, he’s the only one who recognizes him.

    It feels like I read at least up to 12th volume in the past, since I remember Maruo (former fat kid) hiding exposives under his girth. But don’t remember much else.
    (more…)

  • 20th Century Boys

    That was one of the first mangas I tried to read. And nowadays, it’s even more nostalgia than ever.

    It’s still a difficult read. Constant time jumps between different time periods, many characters with Japanese names and nicknames to remember.
    One of the most prominent themes in this manga is the role of the family. Kenji was risen by his elder sister, since his parents were a failure. So now he repays her by taking care of her newborn daughter, Kanna.

     

    The manga also conveys sense of paranoia common to “cult” stories: who can you trust? Who else is a cult member?

     

    My main gripe with the story at the moment, is that at the very beginning Kanna is shown to have some Abilities, and all the characters speak about her as The Last Hope. But only her nanny (an the reader) witnessed those.
    One episode that really annoyed me was when Kenji decides not to shoot Friend “because he’s Kanna father”. Yeah, his nephew simply cannot live without her terrorist cult leader biological father she never met!
    (more…)

  • Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson

    I tried to figure out why the entire Vin/Elend Venture love story annoys me so much. And it feels like Shallan/Adolin Kholin all over again for me. Slightly damaged but oh just so slightly teenage girl falls in mutual love on first sight with a son of the most influential House. Vin, who suspects everyone, but Elend is immediately and immutably “a good person” for her.
    I guess this type of Disney-level relationship works for certain people (they’re called teenagers). But not for me. Abercrombie gets it, but not Sanderson. Relationship is struggle, and without struggle there is no meaningful relationship. Relationship is compromises, and neither Vin/Shallan nor Elend/Adolin need to compromise on anything.
    This frustrates me, because Sanderson does get so many things right. Like the idea of an empire stagnating. But not relationship.

  • Vivobarefoot Tracker II FG

    Been dreaming about those for years. After the initial fiasco, a month and a half later, I find them quite comfortable.
    Certainly need to get used to the weight, and also not to strain tendons too much. But feet feel warm and dry, which I certainly like.
    High boots are certainly not as easy to slip in. And I wish there were mid waterproof option available.

  • Inmost

    Completed Inmost.
    It’s a relatively short and purposefully easy game. Even if you get killed, you usually respawn nearby. There isn’t much backtracking, and puzzles don’t have many options.
    Something between metroidvania and limboid. Cold dark palette. Heavily story-driven, switching between at least 3 different characters that play differently. With the middle-aged man it’s about solving enviromental puzzles, or luring enemies into traps.

    Desktop-Screenshot-2023-01-06-21-39-55-02

    With a knight, it’s more about hitting everything with a sword and rolling, but he can’t jump – only use grappling hook in specific areas.

    Desktop-Screenshot-2023-01-07-11-16-28-82

    With the girl, it’s also about puzzle solving, but there are no enemies.

    Desktop-Screenshot-2023-01-07-11-38-38-68
    Some of the cool action sequences are just that: scenes. Not even QTE.
    Desktop-2023-01-07-19-35-24-03-DVR-mp4-000259-999  Desktop-2023-01-07-19-35-24-03-DVR-mp4-000313-348 Desktop-2023-01-07-19-35-24-03-DVR-mp4-000314-231
    (more…)

  • Under the Silver Lake

    A parody on noir movies. Though I feel like I’m not educated enough to appreciate it. Or maybe I simply didn’t watch enough Hitchock?


    There’s a dog killer everybody talks about. And a millionaire went missing. And a dude, that is a total dickhead, meets a girl, Sarah, that disappears the next day.

    So he goes looking for her. In woman’s restroom, at one point.

     

    He’s a total dickhead, as I said. I found the protagonist to be repelling (I guess this is on purpose, everybody mentions how he smells like a skunk).

     

    The millionaire turns dead, burned in his car with a woman, and the dickhead suspects it’s the same girl he met. He starts obsessing over secret messages, that eventually lead him to an empty atomic bomb shelter and to a cult leader. Turns out the millionaire is not dead, not yet. You see, millionaires use those atomic bomb shelters as tombs. They bury themselves alive in those with their wives to eventually “ascend”. And Sarah is happy with her fate. Is that a commentary on how young girls in LA “sell” themselves to millionaires? Not sure.

    (more…)

  • Mortal Shell

    Completed Mortal Shell.
    The game is relatively short compared to Dark Souls: about one third of number of areas, bosses and overall length. Completed it in about 10 hours.
    Seat of Infinity is the most tiring temple of the three. Even with the skill that gives you another respawn once you kill enough enemies, it’s a trial of endurance. I ended up running past most of the enemies to get to the boss.
    The boss turned out to be the easiest out of the three for me. Maybe because my shell had a long reach and could shrug off some of the damage. Or I was well prepared, and not greedy. Or maybe I just got lucky. But I beat the “siamese twins” on my first attempt, and never looked back. Literally, I just ran all the way out of this cursed temple, not engaging a single enemy.

    Mortal-Shell-2023-01-03-23-16-06-08-DVR-mp4-000149-499Mortal-Shell-2023-01-03-23-23-24-09-DVR-mp4-000447-999
    Final boss proved to be a real challenge for me. Mostly because he summons a lot of quick minions – true bane for my greatsword.

    Mortal-Shell-2023-01-04-20-15-50-10-DVR-mp4-000444-498

    Managed to beat it on my last breath:

    Mortal-Shell-2023-01-04-22-22-34-11-DVR-mp4-000308-738Mortal-Shell-2023-01-04-22-22-34-11-DVR-mp4-000405-999

    (more…)