Author: TheAleosha

Crimson Skies

Original Crimson Skies for PC is a very different beast from its Xbox sequel. The tone is immediately set as a pirate treasure hunt. There are no cutscenes, instead we have radiodrama-like briefings. And the biggest difference is the plane setup. Like in Mechwarrior games, you have weight limit, and you can chose the type of your engine, distribute armour across 4 regions, and most importantly, choose weapon for each of the 6 hardpoints. And for each weapon, you can even pick multiple ammo types.

Bullets have trajectory, indicated by tracers, and aren’t infinite. Missiles are even more finite. I complained that missile stock in High Road to Revenge was much lower than in Ace Combat games, although it could be refilled during mission with pickups. Here, you have 4 missiles, and that’s it. You can also see them on the aircraft belly, which is really cool.
The enemies go down quickly, though, and are few in numbers, so I’m yet to feel need for ammo.
Collisions are quite deadly. I died a few times at the very first seconds of the mission simply because my wingman flew out of the airship right after me, and rammed my plane. And 2nd mission requires you to follow a bomber, which I rammed by mistake as well, downing it and failing the mission.

The game uses Mechwarrior 3 engine, which is obvious to anyone by it’s quite unique picture-in-picture mode, that’s used to track enemy aircraft. That’s pretty neat, as you don’t only get to see their relative direction, but also which way they’re facing. That’s the only good thing I can say about those visuals, though. The lighting is flat, and so are the textures. There’s 3 years difference between Crimson Skies and High Road to Revenge, but the technological gap is vast.

I didn’t manage to make my Xbox One controller work with Crimson Skies despite multiple guides. And I had to use RivaTuner in order to limit FPS, otherwise the game runs at 4x speed with 240FPS.

Tags Crimson Skies

*.BAK

Tres Diablitos beer, Coolhead Brew

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date November 24, 2025

I mourn for the day I’ll find a barrel aged stout I don’t like. Today is not that day, though. Despite Spanish name, this Imperial Stout comes from Finland. It has a complex taste, with a warm aftertaste of chillies.

Tags beer

*.BAK

Limehouse to Dalston

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date November 23, 2025

We went up the Regent’s canal to Victoria park.

Got some chai masala in the market. No mushrooms stall today, though.
Bought some personal cakes (it was a filled scone for me, actually) in Violet bakery. The scone was a disappointment.

Then we went to Hash E8 in Dalston. We had a reservation and even arrived on time, but they didn’t have it in their system. So we had to wait 15 minutes to get a table. Although both the owner and waitress apologied to us, so no hard feelings.

Tags Dalston, Limehouse

*.AVI

Operation Finalle

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date November 22, 2025

This isn’t what I expected, as most of the movie isn’t actually dedicated to capturing Eichmann or to dramatising the escape. Instead, it’s a dialogue between Oscar Isaac and Ben Kingsley.
Melanie Laurent is best known for Shoshanna in Inglorious Bastards. So seing her play another Jewish lady hero is nice.
But I’m not sure what point this movie was trying to make, unlike “Munich” or even “Golda”.
Which is strange, because Oscar’s character arc is solid: he’s this egoistic, rash and haunted by his past failures agent, not the first to be picked, and not the one expect to handle interrogations. And in the end he fights to keep Eichman alive, and almost sacrifices himself in order to let others escape Argentina.
I think I mostly don’t understand Kingsley’s Eichmann. Is he a calculated and violet wolf hiding among sheep? Is he just a German bueracrat judged for crimes of the entire nation? It feels like instead of being ambigous, he’s just confusing.

*.AVI

Golda

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date November 22, 2025

The cigarettes are a common motive. Golda smokes all the time, and so is her cabinet.
The meeting of the cabinet is almost comical. No, it actually is comical, as Ariel Sharon steals two pieces of cake on his way out.
This is all filmed within just a few rooms: Golda’s apartment, the cabinet, courtroom and hospital, with Golda’s visit to the frontlines being played alongside real historical footage of her, and all the action replaced by real historical footage as well.
Despite a couple over dramatic cancer scenes, I really liked the dialogue. It does gives an impression of a chess game, where one side not understanding it mahave won if only just.
Lev is too handsome to play such a slug as Kissinger was, but I still liked the “torture by borscht” scene.

*.AVI

Nobody

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date November 22, 2025

All I knew about this movie is that fight scene on a bus. It is amazing, though. In the way it tells a character story without many words, and with “burglary gone south” trope made fun of.
Strangely, it reminded me of Hurtlocker, the same theme of a veteran trying to live a regular 9to5 life.
Of course it turns into RED, although I’m not sure how many people even remember this Bruce Willis movie.
I talked about picture quality over the last year (although it hardly says anything, as I don’t watch movies in the order of their release), but this one surprised me with the audio quality. They really make the point in the veteran tattoo salon, when the sound of the tattoo machine follows the camera, but it’s just great overall.

Xbox 360

Crimson Skies High Road to Revenge

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date November 14, 2025
3 Comments on Crimson Skies High Road to Revenge

Completed Crimson Skies High Road to Revenge.

This is the most inspiring game in a long time. Second episode boss is a giant mechanical centipede.

Then 3rd episode starts with a duel of two zeppelins between Chicago skyscrapers.

I like how Brigand plane, the heaviest yet, has a rear gunner that reminiscent of Lancaster bombers.

There are some pacing issues in the 4th episode, like mandatory bet with British tourists (?) who downs more Nazi zeppelins. And I’m not a big fan of flying through corridors, especially Aztec corridors with huge pendulums. But this level is much more forgiving than Ace Combat games.

I also stumbled upon the bug of getting stuck after escorting the first Sun Disc. What helped me was to tackle that mission first, then help the tourists.

The final mission is though, but fair. If only there were checkpoints between blowing different parts of the huge Nazi zeppelin.

But then I guess it would be too easy. That way, the boss does give some trouble, but also plenty of satisfaction once you fly through all the turbines and blow all the cores.

Tags Crimson Skies

Xbox 360

Crimson Skies High Road to Revenge

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date November 11, 2025

Zeppelin is amazing. It’s there during all the missions, it actually engages enemies by itself, and you can also land on it at any time to shoot enemies using one of its guns. This kind of tackles the problem I have with most arcade sims: they are sims of one particular style: dogfight or foxfight, usually. While my favorite style is actual capital ships, like Rebel Galaxy did. Here, you kind of can pick between dogfights and capital ships. Kind of, because you don’t control the zeppelin.

The attention to small details is astonishing. Like the moving trains that you need to either rob or protect, and you can grab ammo from its open platforms. Later, there’s also a duel between two trains.
I also like how no-hands-holding new planes are. Nobody tells you there’s a plane you can find. You need to look for it, and usually you’ll find a new one in some bandit hideout.

I’m mindblown how bold this game is. First episode boss was a zeppeling transforming into mechanical spider.

Tags Crimson Skies

Xbox 360

Cold Fear

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date November 8, 2025

Completed Cold Fear.
One of the worst design decissions is the C4 episode, where after clearing two rooms, you need to fight an invisible enemy in a room full of explosive barrels. One wrong bullet, and you need to repeat the entire episode again. And if you thought of running away: there are laser mines, which you can avoid, but the enemy can’t.
There is exactly one boss, and it’s a strange one. While Anna plants bombs, you need to distract her mutated father. If he catches her, it’s game over. He can also knock you off the platform, game over. Or, if you get knocked down, he can stomp you. Game over. If you manage to survive, the second phase is waiting for him to grab you to perform a QTE counter three times.

I was expecting some kind of plot twist regarding CIA agent that guides you, but no, nothing. You blow the platform and that’s it.

Tags Cold Fear

3DS Nintendo

Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date November 8, 2025

Completed Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy.
I was wrong that they excluded aircraft due to it being old. You do get access to F4 later. Not sure why you’d want to fly an inferior plane, though.
By 21st mission, you get the F15M (doesn’t exists in real life, it’s a tribute to Macros anime). And this mission, which was quite tight in the original is laughably easy. And while I didn’t managed to complete cruise missile chasing Last Resort on the first try, I did it on the 3rd, not 30th like with the original.

First time I see wingman actually completing objectives. In all other games I remember only value was that they would distract some enemies.

Tags Ace Combat, Assault Horizon Legacy

Uncategorized

Frieren

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date November 8, 2025

Modern Japanese anime is strange to me, because it’s mostly based on D&D concepts nowadays. Here we have a aloof elven mage who struggles to understand value of time, being able to live for a thousand years.
She basically retraces the steps of her party from 80 years ago, most of which has either died of old age, or in case of a dwarf, too old to travel, with her teenage human apprentice.
It’s not even so much monster hunting tasks, as using levitate to gather pumpkins or clear a cove from shipwrecks for locals to have a festival and celebrate sunrise.

Tags Frieren

*.AVI

Black Mass

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date November 7, 2025

Most people don’t understand what “informant” means. This is probably the best depiction, how working with FBI allowed a small time Irish criminal become Boston kingpin, killing tens of people in the process.
I don’t remember why I wanted to watch it, maybe because I watched “Legend” or maybe was impressed by Joel Edgerton from “The King” (here it’s much weaker role).
After doing some reading, the bit that surprised me the most is not Bulger (although going for Johnny Depp was an overkill, he’s nothing special), but how sympathethic Flemmi is depicted. In reality, he strangled not one, but two of his girlfriends, then dismembered them. Also, the fact that Flemmi was an informant before Bulger is completely reversed.

*.AVI

JoJo Rabbit

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date November 7, 2025

It’s amazing, and obviously very sad. It is funny, the writing is great, and over the top acting fits the atmosphere well.

Scarlett Johanson really surprised me, as I was sure she would be just a prop, but she actually steals the show. How she delivers “you don’t know him, he’s a fanatic” speaking of her 10 years old son is incredible. Or how she plays the missing father. There is so many levels to that single episode.

Everyone always mentions the double shoes scene. But frankly, almost every scene is amazing with it’s asymmetry.

Strangely, or maybe not, the scene that hit me the most was the Russians executing the Nazis, and how that goofy, over the top German soldier sacrifices his life to save JoJo.

And maybe the subtleness of the rabbit in the winter scene. Since we see JoJo scrapping garbage bins for food we expect that the next scene he’d be eating the rabbit. But this isn’t about it. It’s about holding long enough to survive.
And yeah, maybe the movie was about surviving the “Nazi Trump” first term for some. I don’t care. I think that’s what makes a great art, when you can find something for yourself.

Xbox 360

Cold Fear

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 28, 2025

There are two main problems with Cold Fear.
First is unintuitive navigation. While Resident Evil is a maze you need to learn, Cold Fear is maze you need to unlearn, because it would constantly block paths behind you, forcing you to find new paths. You can mock Resident Evil for its thematic locks and keys, but remembering which door can now be opened in Cold Fear is far more difficult task.
The second problem is… lack of inspiration. Your weapons are: pistol, AK, shotgun, and a speargun that shoots capsules that distract enemies. The enemies are: zombie with cleaver, mercenary with pistol/AK and spider-like parasite. There isn’t much to go on.
At some point you decide to crash the whaler back into the platform it sailed from. You loose all your weapons and get infected by the parasite, but both resolved in a matter of 10 minutes, I’m not even sure why they bothered.
On the platform, we finally get our first boss fight. And it’s just shooting a russian dude until he dies. Hansen also removes his eye from the corpse for retinal scanner. Those Coastal Guards are sure hardcore.
You find more weapons on the rig: MP5 (why, if we have AK?), M79 grenade launcher, flamethrower (useless, unfortunately). And more enemies: hunter-like enemies that take far too many shotgun blasts to die, and frog-like invisible enemies.
Hansen infected again, in a span of an hour. And Anna is first rescued, then purposefully infected by her now mutated father, which of course reminds of Birkin from Resident Evil 2.

Tags Cold Fear

*.BAK

Fletchers Red Oak cider

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 28, 2025

I rarely drink cider. This one we found while visiting Ludlow, and turns out it’s a very local brand, that doesn’t even have a proper website.
Barrel aging makes everything better: whiskey obviously, beer, and even cider. It’s delicious, smooth, with almost no gas and a lot of body. Hits pretty strong too.

Tags cider

Xbox 360

Cold Fear

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 27, 2025

I didn’t know what I expected from this game. Resident Evil 3? Resident Evil 4? Honestly, it’s quite distinct from both. Yes, over the shoulder aiming and laser pointer is very much Resident Evil 4. But there’s much less focus on ammo management. There’s actually an upper limit of how much ammo you can carry for your pistol.
Technologically, it’s very impressive what they tried to achieve here. Dinamic shadows, water phisics, the way your character adjusts his balance according to ship’s sway, raindrops on camera, splashes of water that act as hazard. Speaking of hazards, on the main deck there’s a cargo that swings like a pendulum, and if you get in its way: you’ll get bonked.
Save system is a mix of checkpoints and saves. At key points you are asked if you want to save or not. The only reason you wouldn’t, though, if you are very low on health, I guess. Enemies drop both health and ammo, so for a survival horror, it’s quite aggressive. Sometimes I would finish off a zombie and loot it in the middle of a fight.
Speaking of zombies, they only die permanently after a headshot. And even after a headshot they can edject the parasite, which ironically does even more damage than a zombie with a cleaver. Landing headshots on a swaying ship using a gamepad is not easy. Maybe I should have picked PC version after all.
Storywise, its”The Thing ” all over again. Cartel reopens old russian oil rig, with the help of some exSoviet military and researches. But instead of oil they discover those exocel parasites, that infect dogs, humans and even orcas. Of course they start experimenting on the parasites in order to produce bioweapons. And here we are.

Tags Cold Fear

Xbox 360

Crimson Skies High Road to Revenge

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 25, 2025

I wasn’t sure what to expect of Crimson Skies High Road to Revenge. Another Ace Combat? As expected from its WW1 aircraft design, it’s much more a dogfight game than a foxfight. Although missiles are still a thing, you don’t get as many of them as in Ace Combat games, and they don’t home as much.
Visually, it’s surprisingly pleasant. It has this softness many Xbox games had, and they really make a point to showcase this with an endless sunset above the ocean.

Since it’s alternative post WW1, they also can immediately show of with huge zeppelins, which is impressive. And there are a few more cool details, like enemy pilots parachuting out of their planes.
There’s an arcade element to the gameplay: sometimes there are health pickups that you need to pick up.
Instead of just replacing your plane with a fancier one, you get upgrade system, albeit very basic and arcady. Basically a plane has three stats: armour, firepower and speed. I’m not a fan of how those upgrades are acquired , though. Instead of getting them by completing missions, you need to search for glinting tokens in the open world, usually performing some flights though tunnels to get them. Which wouldn’t be that bad if they would be marked on the map once you discover them, or if there was at least a count of how many there are in a mission.

Every plane has primary and secondary weapons, but they aren’t the same. First plane is pretty standard, with a machine gun and guided rockets. But the second plane you find has a slower firing cannon and a shotgun.

Instead of a mission, it’s more like a open world game on a smaller scale. You get missions by hailing other planes or stations. The problem though is there are no subtitles in this game, so you need to listen carefully what you ought to do.
Another impressive feature is that you can land into your zeppelin and control one of the three turrets, switching between them.

Tags Crimson Skies, High Road to Revenge

*.BAK

Life is Perception, Blackout Brewing

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 22, 2025

First time I’m trying beer from Romania. It’s a very solid Barrel Aged Imperial Stout, aged in Palo Cortado (special sherry) barrels for a year.
Zero head, tastes like sour cherry, leaves you energetic. At 12GBP it’s not cheap, but worth it.
Would try some more Barrel Aged from Blackout Brewing when I get the opportunity.

Tags beer, Blackout Brewing

PC Gaming

Blood West

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 22, 2025

Completed Blood West.
Third episode bumps the stakes again. Enemies are so “meaty” I have to buy the unique revolving buffalo rifle, and gunpowder horn that saves 40% of its very expensive ammo. The whole idea of the episode is that you descend into this “radioactive” canyon (at least you don’t need gas mask filters, but you do need to craft a “gas mask” sort of), towards the huge demon skeleton that carved this canyon.
One episode I didn’t enjoy much is raiding the indian village for one of the totem figurines. It’s swarming with invisible enemies called Broken Screams. Since they are invisible, it’s hard to sneak past them, and I ended up almost running of ammo. Had to use the chain revolver that holds 28, so I don’t need to reload so often.
There are nasty enemies called Boo Hags, skinless women that can only be killed with a instakill or fire. One of them is talkative and asks to bring her skin back. She also mentions that the night is endless, which is never explained.
There’s very little explained in general. We climb the mountain, summon totem of souls (which was previously a ram head on a stick), which is a bubble, that turns into a dragon. The boss fight is fine, but least inventive out of the three bosses: it telegraphs where “mortars” will land, and has a “flamethrower” pattern attack. You shoot it with buffalo rifle until it dies, which doesn’t take long.

Despite story being lackluster, I enjoyed this game immensely. One of the best experiences of 2025.

Tags Blood West

3DS Nintendo

Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 20, 2025

Another change I find curious is the aircraft choice. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that some aircrafts from A e Combat 2 are outdated by modern standards, or some licensing issues, but while previously you started with F4, now your starting aircraft is F16, which was present in the original game, but was more of a midgame option.
Also something they probably could afford because they were using the Assault Horizon engine is cockpit view. It didn’t exist in the original, and I love it.

Ace Combat 2 came up with the concept of unique enemies, but they were low key, easy to miss. Here, they are in your face, introduced with a cutscene, and an entire squadron of them (5 planes) each time. Also, each seems to have a gimmick. For Beast Squadron, for example, they are invincible when they are together in the same zone, so you have to lure them one by one.

The entire economy has been rebalanced. There is less planes, and those are harder to buy. I skipped MIR2000, because I wanted to save for F14.
They tried to modernize some missions. The ravine mission where you need to hit the submarine is not a chase after the sumbarine, before it hides in the dock.

Tags Ace Combat, Assault Horizon Legacy