Category: Aleosha Blog

*.BAK

Aeropress Go Plus

Aeropress Go Plus is almost everything I wanted from Aeropress Go. It is slightly bigger. The plastic is clear and feels more robust. Actually, the entire thing is more robust. The cup is metal and thermal, and has a storage compartment at the bottom for extra paper filters. And it all fits very nicely.
The only downside for me is that you can’t fit the lid with the pressurized filter cap on. Aeropress Go had a rubber lid, so you could still stretch it, but Go Plus has a plastic lid. Still, I prefer this version much more, and I didn’t plan to use the lid anyway.

Tags aeropress, coffee

*.BAK

Burning Sky Blessed State beer

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date April 12, 2025

I purchased a can of this beer simply for the gorgeous art.

First thing that comes to mind it is how smooth that beer is. Guinness level of smoothness, but at 7% ABV. They use both coffee beans and cacao nibs, and both are blended very well.
And believe it or not, it does put you in that lightly-sleepy state for a very long time, I was still feeling it after 3-4 hours, which is uncommon for such a low ABV.

Tags beer, Burning Sky

PC Gaming

Far Cry 6

Like many other sandboxes, Far Cry 6 can’t decide what it wants to be. Either you can singlehandedly hijack a Soviet tank, jump from 50m only to open a parachute and a wingsuit, and if you venture into a zone too early, enemies there would withstand multiple headshots from a sniper rifle. Also, you have a backpack that shoots homing rockets that are able to blow both tanks and helicopters.
But then the story is this family feuds and serious sacrifices. At least they still have the ability to kill off characters.
Also, there is counter narrative, it wouldn’t be Far Cry without it. Castillo mentions that 80% of his soldiers come from farmer families, not a fact for cartoonish tyrant. And Alejandro tells her sister that she is a guerilla just because she thinks it’s all a game.

Tags Far Cry

*.BAK

Shun Kai Premier

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date April 11, 2025

My knife philosophy, that has developed over the years, is that I have a pair of chef’s knives, 6″ and 8″, and a pair of santoku knives, also 6″ and 8″, and I slowly upgrade them year by year. I started with Arcos and OXO, and now I’m creeping to Japanese brands.
This year came the time of 8″ to be upgraded. Since I was traveling to the US, I decided to fulfil my 2 years long dream and get a Shun Kai knife in the form of 8″ Premier Chef knive.
European knives usually come at 58 Rockwell hardness. This claims to be 61. But here’s a hard truth: no matter how hard your steel is, you still need to sharpen in. Horl for the win.
Here’s an example on even harder Miyabi knives, which are on my list as well:

Also, I’ll admit to what everyone else was saying. Those hammer dimples don’t have any effect on food adhesion to the blade. They just look nice.

Tags knives

*.AVI

Transformers One

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date April 9, 2025

Transformers are quite a ridiculous universe. I mean, there are female transformers, you have transformers going to a gym, and riding to work in trains.

But in this nonsensical universe, they created an excellent origin story, where Optimus is the adventurous one, while Megatron is the more level headed. Both of them can’t transform. This is actually a thing in the Transformers universe, you need a Cog to transform, and some original episodes were even dedicated to this cog being stolen.
Also, it’s Optimus who gives Megatron his emblematic sticker.
And, because those are all robots, there is a place for some ultra violence, like Megatron tearing the previous tyrant in half.

What this movie manages to capture is the aesthethics of the early ninethies. With no blur:

Maybe not all is lost yet.

Tags Transformers

MMORPG

Albion Online

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date April 9, 2025

I think it’s a bit of a shame that the game is heavily skewed towards gathering. You are supposed to loose all your equipment from time tobtime, and then buy it again, and that’s what powers game economy.

The bosses are fun at first, feel fair enough if you learn their patterns, but the reward can be 2K, while upgrading your weapon costs 350K, and 2K doesn’t even cover the repair costs for your gear. Probably because of how unprofitable it is, finding a party for dungeons is also almost impossible, unless it’s an end game raid.
Speaking of upgrading, I didn’t understand why it’s needed at first, until my growth started to plato around T6 gear (out of 8). So my character can’t use a T7 sword, but he can upgrade T6 sword he can use 4 times, basically creating T10 sword in the process. Upgrading is expensive, but it is needed as leveling up gets very time consuming.

Tags Albion Online

*.AVI

Batman (2022)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date April 6, 2025

Watching Batman after Penguin is quite interesting, as I have more context on who Maronis and Falcones are.
I never liked Nolan’s trilogy, especially Dark Knight, so for me going back to investigative roots of Batman works great.
Seems like the art of dialog writing also returns to us:
” – I have a thing about strays” while Catwoman speaks with Batman is a good one.
The most distinguishable feature is the top-down shots.

Not groundbreaking or anything, but distinguishable. That, and that cats. The cats are gorgeous.

Tags Batman

Mobile Gaming

Tacticus

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date April 6, 2025

Unlocked Plagueburst Crawler from it’s Incursion event.

Unlocked Roswitha from requisitions.

Unlocked Sword Brother Godswyl from leveling up Orks and grinding his battle. Important as he’s needed for Octarius Mirror.

By this point I started to get tired of the game, as the progress is very slow and not very rewarding.
Unlocked Abraxas from grinding his campaign battle. This is important, as now I have Saim Hann Mirror campaign unlocked.

Unlocked Thaddeus Noble, also from grinding, and also important, as it unlocks Fall of Cadia Mirror. Now, I have just one more Mirror campaign to unlock, which is Octarius Mirror.

Unlocked Brother Burchard by grinding. Just one more Black Templar character to grind through to unlock the final Mirror Campaign.

Tags Tacticus, w40k

XBOX

Samurai Shodown Sen

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date April 6, 2025

Samurai Shodown Sen (aka Edge of Destiny) is one of those weird 3D instalments of Samurai Shodown series that happened after SNK’s implosion. Officialy, it was ever released only in the arcades (Taito Type X) and on Xbox 360, making it one of the few games that still warrant having Xbox 360.

But recently I discovered that a PC version exists. At first I thought this is some kind of a scam. Then I thought that it’s some kind of wrapper around Xenia. Neither seem to be true. Some comments say that this might be a leaked prototype, put together by fans. Which may explain why it uses dgVoodoo to run.

After I managed to play it once, though, the game stopped booting, giving an error in what I suspect to be Japanese. And no matter how many times I tried to delete it and unpack it again (there’s no installation process), they game just wouldn’t start.
Speaking of Xenia, though, I discovered that it emulates the game perfectly well. And that’s the opportunity to finally discuss what it is. Because in essence, it’s not a Samurai Shodown game. It’s Soul Calibur with characters from Samurai Shodown. Instead of weak/medium/strong slashes, there are vertical and horizontal slashes. There’s a grab (throw) with a single button. There are very few special moves, but many combos. And the inputs are mostly chains of attacks, not QCF/QCB common to SNK games.

The characters are modelled and animated well (looking at you, Arika), no complains there. Visually, it’s an Xbox 360 game. I’m not sure what specifically prompted that style on Xbox, but it’s very dark, gray/brown in tone.

Tags Samurai Shodown

*.AVI

Saturday Night Live (2024)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 31, 2025

“The Bear” changed cinema. “Saturday Night Live” tries to recreate the same frantic athmosphere, minute by minute: the movie is 90 minutes in length, and starts 90 minutes before the show goes live on TV.
I feel like it requires too much prior knowledge. Am I supposed to know all those comedians that they mention? John Bellucci? Chevy Chase? Billy Preston? Because I don’t.
One bit I didn’t get is why they used Nicholas Braun (Succession) for two characters. One of them is some strange Italian, and another a muppeteer if that’s the name. It doesn’t seem like any other characters acknowledges it’s the same person. The one I actually knew was Dan Aykroyd, Ray from Ghostbusters. And I actually did see Chevy Chase in “Memoirs of an Invisible Man”.
After reading some more, I discovered that some of the cast died before they hit 40, either from overdose or cancer. And most of them left the show after 4-5 years.
I can’t deny it’s a good movie. The allegories with putting bricks is brilliant: just like putting a show together. Also, the actors they choose represent their real-life counterparts extremely well.
But I’m not sure it’s a movie anyone should go to theaters for.

*.BAK

Auchentoshan Three Wood

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 27, 2025

I’d like to say that I didn’t like this whiskey, and the only reason I tried it is that it comes in 5cl bottles. And that would be partially true. I didn’t like the taste, a bit smoky, a bit tarty, a bit sweet, it is almost as if you chew on biltong. Later I read that it is bourbon, PX Sherry and Oloroso sherry. But I wouldn’t associate it with sherry much, I would lean more into some wine casks, even.
But I must admit, it is complex. And it does numb the mouth, and gives a bit of warmth, and a suprising amount of lightheadiness for a 43%. And all that for 45GBP. Not something I would buy, but not because it’s not interesting, but because it isn’t my style.

Tags Auchentoshan, whiskey

Hardware

Keychron M3 Mini Metal

I finally got tired of Razer Deathadder V3 Pro, and decided to try something new. Since I absolutely adore Keychron keyboards, the choice was quite obvious.
As I mentioned previously, I don’t like the current trend that tried to make mice as light as possible. But since there’s no alternative, and I wanted a change, I got the metal mouse with holes in it. Not a fan of the holes, but they also don’t bother me as much as I envisioned. Also, I thouth that the mouse will be cold to touch, it isn’t much different from plastic, though.
What I do like, compared to Deathadder, is mostly that Keychron didn’t do all the stupid mistakes Razer made with V3. There’s Bluetooth support if I ever needed one, there’s a clear switch for on/off and DPI. I would have preferred larger side buttons, but they aren’t much smaller than V3.
What I do like is how the mouse clicks. It’s a much lower “thud”, compared with a high-pitched “click” from Razer, the sound is much like Keychron keyboards.
One strange decission is how big the receiver is. All receivers I’ve seen until now were small enough to disappear in a USB slot. This one is the size of my pinkie, and it needs to be connected with a USB-C cable.

MMORPG PC Gaming

Albion Online

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 26, 2025

As I still have a couple of days of Premium, I decided to keep at it. A couple of hours in, you finally get some weapon variety. Not just sword and shield, but two handed swords as well.
There are no experience levels, but instead every skill has a level. Swing a claymore, and you will raise both “sword” and “claymores”. Swing it enough times, and you’ll be able to use claymore of the next tier.
Levels also affect which skills you get. Every piece of equipment has multiple skills to pick from. The choice is mostly between single-target and AoE.
Group dungeons are fun. Or at least they are fine. But unlike Diablo Immortal, there’s no built-in mechanism where you queue to a dungeon. You just need to descend into a dungeon and hope other people will come with you.

Tags Albion Online

*.BAK

Rivington American Barleywine

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 24, 2025

Beautiful bottle, with a was seal. Tastes like triple IPA, but without the gas. Nice, as I like when a beer doesn’t taste like a beer anymore, but the aftertaste is bitter, and I probably wouldn’t buy it again.

Tags beer

PC Gaming

Albion Online

I can see why many praise that game. The chunky low-poly visuals are reminiscent of Torchlight 2. Combat is quite solid, with enemies telegraphing their attacks and cycling through skills. The other aspects don’t inspire me us much, though. All equipment seems to be just generic “Novice Sword”, “Journeyman Sword”, etc. And the whole gathering/refining/crafting loop seems tiresome.

PC Gaming

Far Cry 6

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 23, 2025

Right of the bat you get access to some pretty powerful weapons. One of the makeshift weapons is a crossbow shooting harpoons. And then there’s the in-game shop, and maybe because the game is pretty old they were giving away in-game currency at some point, but I had enough to get a bullpup sniper rifle as well.

In addition, you have a superpower in a form of a improvised backpack. The default is kind of a mortar attack, but there’s also poison and EMP AoE variants.
With all this crazy weaponry and constant references to superhero comics, it would be interesting if they try to turn this into a “Vanishing of Ethan Carter” kind of story, where everything is just imagination of the dictator’s son. Speaking of which, no matter which gender you choose at the start of the game, everyone still calls you Dani (Daniel/Daniella), which is a smart trick, instead of everyone “swallowing” the protagonist name like in some other games. And condiering how androgynous this “son” looks, it might be he’s not son at all… But we’ll see.

Tags Far Cry

PC Gaming

Kingdom Come Deliverance

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 23, 2025

Completed Kingdom Come Deliverance.
Quite unexpectedly. Which is a funny thing to say about a game you spent 80 hours on. But the thing is, one of the very first quests you get is to recover your father’s sword and avenge the dead of your parents. And turns out, you never get to complete this quest. This is quite brilliant.
So, in the end, Istvan, the evil henchman of the Hungarian king, is allowed to go free, and you end up traveling with Hans Capon, the arrogant “prince”, to convince the lords to ally with king Wenceslav.
There’s still plenty of bonus content I didn’t complete: the village that you can rebuild, and helping a band of mercenaries, and a whole lot of other stuff. But I think I had enough of that for now.

Tags Kingdom Come Deliverance

PC Gaming

Kingdom Come Deliverance

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 22, 2025

As by the end of the game most enemies become heavily armored, in a historically-accurate manner simple blunt weapons become much more effective than fancy expensive swords. Every battle I feel like Henry IV from “The King” played by Chalamet, wielding that punny hammer with mostly anguish.
On the main quest, you need to enlist kind of a “mad scientist” to build a trebuchet for the siege. And he tells you that a trader that arrived in town recently is there to assassinate him, because he had a row with Hungarian king. You can confront the trader, and he will deny everything. At night, though, he tries to pick the lock. You can confront him again, and he’ll provide a plausible excuse. I thought that’s the end of it. Imagine my surprise when he suddenly did appear in the camp and assassinated the engineer in front of my eyes.
Johanka’s quest line makes you take a pilligrimage by walking across the map wearing a robe, and ends with a heretic trial. I didn’t get the best ending, but by that point, I was pretty tired with the whole affair, honestly.

Tags Kingdom Come Deliverance

*.BAK

Edradour 12 Year Old Cask Strength

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 22, 2025

This whiskey literally made me laught out loud, as it doesn’t even taste like a whiskey anymore. It’s like they got the oloroso sherry casks, and decided to squeeze every bit out of them. It’s like drinking madeira, if madeira came at almost 60%. Probably sweetest whiskey I ever had. It’s delicious. Numbs the tongue, warms the mouth. Buying a bottle before trying is always a risk, but this time, I was spot-on.

Tags Edradour, whiskey

*.BAK

GlenAllachie 12 Years Old

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 17, 2025

Another one of 50ml tasters I bought separately, Glenallachie 12. It’s a surprising one. Very smooth for a 12 years old Speyside. Sweet, but more into apple crumble sweet. A bit of numbness on the tongue, no warmth in the throat, but nice warmth in the belly.
For 55GBP, it’s a great find.

Tags glenallachie, whiskie