Category: PC Gaming

Об играх

Death Stranding

There are a lot of motives: bonds, knots, bridges, strands, “make us whole again”, “I’ll be waiting for you on the beach, come and find me”. Still no idea what any of that means.

There’s a boss fight, but you don’t have conventional weapons yet, only grenades. Luckily, it isn’t very hard, although the boss can instakill you if you aren’t careful.

Boss is summoned by Higgs, who’s the leader of a terrorist group. Once one of the monsters devours a human, it results in an explosion, and Higgs orchestrates those events.

Every time Sam rests we’ve shown some memories from the perspective of the baby in the artificial womb. We’re told not to worry about this, which means that either memories are important, or the memories we see aren’t the fetus we carry, but Sam’s own (which also means President is not his mother).

Sam is also carrying a photo which supposed to be of him, his mother and sister. But even although the face is smudged is not the face of Amelie, I suspect.

Tags Death Stranding

PC Gaming

Death Stranding

Death Stranding reminds me of scifi of the 70s, that leaned into weird and unknown. Here we have creatures invisible to most people that age everything they touch, and apparently people corpses not disposed properly exploding like a nuclear bomb.
There are some concepts that are mundane in cinema, but grounbreaking in games. Like body hair. Or tears. Nobody cares about those, except Kojima. But those are the most technologically advanced tears I’ve seen, and may yet see for many more years.
We play as Sam, a postapocaliptic porter. His last name is Porter as well. Sam has center of gravity and momentum. If he runs downhill, he’ll stumble and fall, and if his backpack is too heavy he’ll fall on his back.
Sam is also son of the last America president, who’s dying of cancer. One of your first tasks is to cremate her, so she doesn’t explode. Then your sister becomes the next president (not very democratic), but there’s a catch: she’s held by some organisation on the other side of the continent. And now it’s up to you to go and rescue her.
You’re given a BB, artifical baby in an artifical womb, that once connected, outlines the monsters, which you need to sneak by. Innovative, but not very convenient. Although that goes for the entire game.
The problem is that there isn’t much game to begin with. Or it’s like the most boring and mundane things were put into a single game. I always avoided online interactions in the Souls series. And here we have more of those: you supposed to share cargo with other players, and your currency is literally likes they give you. And the entire gameplay is just endless strings of fetch quests. Now I guess it all started with Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops, a low budget game for a portable console. So they had to make a lot of very small, self contained missions, and a ton of meta-management in between. Then we got Metal Gear Solid 5, which wasn’t small anymore, but still was an endless stream of stealth missions and meta-management. Now, you aren’t even given weapons at first. The first weapon you are given is a vial with your shower water you are supposed to throw at monsters like a grenade.
Avoiding online interractions, fetch quests and I’m sure later they’ll make you throw piss at enemies too. What you wouldn’t do to watch best cutscenes industry can produce?

Tags Death Stranding

PC Gaming

Callisto Protocol

Completed Callisto Protocol.
You discover that Warden of the prison is still alive. He prevents your escape by shooting down the ship. Then there’s a lenghty sequence where you have to sneak past blind zombies. It’s possible to fight past them even if you fail your sneaking, so it’s not a big deal. And it’s also possible to take them down stealthly. The funny part is just how much noise Jacob produces while doing so, without any zombie noticing.
The game starts to remind me of Order 1886. It is very compelling visually, has simple but effective mechanics, but doesn’t excel at anything in particular. The first boss, two headed ogre, is an example of it: it looks good, but all you need to do is to dodge its attacks and shoot it until it dies.
Because Dani mentions that you can relieve the memories through the chip you have, I was expecting a twist that it was all just a dream or someone else memory. But it is mostly what it is: shadowy organization seeking to evolve humanity discovering alien lifeform and experimenting on the prisoners.
The upgrade system plays a trick on you. Throwing enemies at spikes and fans is very effective, I got through the entire transporter arena by just throwing mutated zombies at the fan over and over again without wasting a single bullet. So you are tempted to upgrade telekinesys as much as possible. But it doesn’t work on bosses. Same goes for melee.
The final boss is good, despite its shortcomings. It’s so big you can hardly see what’s going around you, and what’s going around you are suicide zombies, which you supposed to throw at the boss, but if you don’t, kill you. Also, the boss kills you in one hit. But at least you can see where you need to shoot, and out of all “tyrants”, I enjoyed it one of the most.
Also, that’s the only encounter in the game I found automatic pistol to be useful, as the target is so big and you don’t need to save bullets anymore.
In the end, Jacob accepts that his smuggling operations is what allowed outbreak of the virus on Europa to happen, killing Dani’s sister (that’s all to the cube you’ve shown in your dreams, it seems). He sacrifices himself to save Dani. But there’s also a DLC where I guess he tries to escape, but I’m not gonna try it.

Tags Callisto Protocol

PC Gaming

Callisto Protocol

There’s no experience, but there are credits, used to upgrade the weapons and the telekinetic glove. Inventory is very limited, so most of the excesses should be sold, since there isn’t much backtracking.
Something I thought we got over with around 2010: transitions. Every few minutes you need to squeeze through some tight space, or crawl through an air duct, or slowly open a door with your bare hands.
Enemies start to mutate, and if you don’t kill them in time, become stronger. Resident Evil 4 used a somewhat similar system.
Once you get your suit and go out: that snow is really impressive. Not just a texture, but with a depth to it.

First part of the game we mostly guided on radio by another convict, Elias, who finds different reasons why he can’t come with us. So I fully expected him to betray us. But no, he just dies once we get out.

Tags Callisto Protocol

PC Gaming

Callisto Protocol

It’s Dead Space. I haven’t played the 2023 remake, but still. The colors, the camera, the movement, audiologs, body stomps, it’s all there. Nice introduction overall, explains neatly why protagonist has traffic light in the back of his head.
Impressive how sweaty characters are. And also some familiar faces among the actors.
Gameplay wise, it feels much more melee oriented. Luckily, without any Souls like influence. Blocking with “back” button is something common in fighting games, but I don’t ever remember seeing in third person action. Once you get a pistol, you also can perform a combo where you auto aim at a stunned enemy. Handy.
Of course there are upgrades for your weapons. Nice that the upgrades actually change the look of the weapon, and in a way that makes sense: stability upgrade adds a foregrip, for example.
You also get a powerglove to drag objects or even enemies like a Jedi. I remember this was popular in early 2000s games, but everything makes a comeback eventually.

Something very strange happened with this game. I had it bought on Epic Store (I actually received it for free), but when I went to my library to install it, it wasn’t there. So I thought maybe I didn’t remember correctly. I went to the Store page, but there it was saying “In Library”. I checked Library again, it wasn’t there. I contacted support, but by the time they responded, it reappeared again.

Tags Callisto Protocol

PC Gaming

RoboCop Rogue City

Completed RoboCop Rogue City .
You have to deal with the walking tanks twice more, but they are more of a joke at long distances. Still bullet sponges, though.
After a disastrous first boss, I’m surprised how well the final boss came out. It has phases, clear weak spots and attack telegraphs, just overall very enjoyable.
The story is bolder than I expected. I thought they’d pull a W40K, leaving everything were it was, but they actually got rid of some of the key characters.
It’s a blend of Robocop 1 and Robocop 2 stories, leading straight into Japanese arc of Robocop 3, but then, this is what’s expected. OCP corporation controlling Detroit police force, and sabotaging it at the same time, in hopes to make the city uninhabitable and rebuild it from scratch. OCP CEO, literally called Old Man, is afraid of death, so he tries to use psychologist send to Robocop to properly digitalize himself for the afterlife (Robocop is the only success ever, after all). The interesting twist is that the main antagonist, who introduced himself as the brother of villain from Robocop 1, is actually a fraud, and his real name never revealed, because who cares?!

Tags Robocop

PC Gaming

RoboCop Rogue City

One mechanic I don’t remember seeing much in other games is competing with allies. Robocop would compete with the walking tank ED-209, or a SWAT team, and if you kill more criminals than they do, you get extra XP.

The fight with ED-209 was surprisingly annoying. Because otherwise, the game is quite the pleasure. Robocop moves slowly, and the robot is accurate, so you end up dying to chip damage. And despite the hint that it has a weak spot at the front, it still feels like a bullet sponge.

While there are plenty of weapons to pick from enemies, including some of the all-time favorites like Barrett sniper rifle, G11 assault rifle and SPAS-12 shotgun, most of the time you’ll be using Robocop’s siderarm. Because it has infinite ammo (I’m not sure if it’s a nod to 90’s action movies mentality or just convenience) and with it burst fire mode is good enough for most situations. You can also customize it, by finding alternative PCBs and playing a simple puzzle game: turning it full auto or single-action Magnum style, or adding a belt feeding mechanism so you don’t ever need to reload it again.

Tags Robocop

PC Gaming

Robocop Rogue City

As I said about Resident Evil 2 Remake, 20 years ago I wouldn’t believe something like that would be possible. Actually, I wouldn’t believe something like that would be possible even now, as they clearly got so many things right: Lewis, Robocop’s partner, and Murphy’s own hallucinations.

It plays like Bioshock 2. You’re this hulking monster, sturdy, but slow. And with a nice enemy highlight. You can pick enemy weapons, but for the first part, the default gun is more than enough. It’s accurate, and has burst fire. All accompanied by good old ultraviolence: heads pop, bodies fly, like it’s 2000 again.
Also like Bioshock, you can actually upgrade Robocop, it has 8 different skills, each with its perks. I think one of the Mass Effects used a similar linear system.
There are areas where the lack of budget is obvious, though. Mostly lack of facial animations of second-tier NPCs.

Tags Robocop

PC Gaming

Ghost Recon Breakpoint

I keep going back to this game, because let’s be honest, it’s ridiculous. It has some of the best shooting mechanics.

Balistics, firing modes, silencers, the feedback from the weapons is simply amazing. Take their approach for “heavies”, for example. It still takes just two headshots to down them, they don’t become some bullet sponges like in some other games.
Then there’s the hardcore mechanics. Like you don’t regenerate your health fully until you bandage your wounds, and how you limp while wounded, or how you can camouflage yourself while lying down, and that you have to change ammo by magazines, and probably tons of other mechanics I don’t even know exist.

Tags Ghost Recon

PC Gaming

Conscript

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 26, 2025

Many compare this game with Resident Evil, and I can see the resemblance in some of the mechanics: saves use ink, limited discrete inventory (each item takes one cell, be it a rifle or a pack of cigarettes), there are magic boxes to store equipment, and a lot of locked doors.
Combat system is different, though, with charge and stamina for melee weapons, and manual reload after each shot for firearms. You aim with your mouse, but there’s also a charge mechanic there, the reticle becomes smaller the longer you aim. There are also shooting enemies, something rare in original Resident Evil games for obvious reasons.
Story is very grounded. You are a French conscript fighting alongside your brother at Verdun. You are left behind in trenches now patrolled by Germans, and on the lookout for officers, scattered across the trenches in more than one sense, to get the keys for bunkers.
There’s a basic upgrade system, more of Resident Evil 4 than Resildent Evil 2, though, with generic stat boosts instead of custom parts.

Tags Conscript

PC Gaming

Resident Evil 2 (2019)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 23, 2025

Completed Leon B scenario.
Playing Leon B scenario I can see that the two pistols with different ammo exists here as well. This scenario feels like the toughest yet, I haven’t been running out of ammo or being limited by inventory as much in my previous two runs.

The biggest issue are the lickers. Even upgraded Magnum can’t get them in a single shot, so dealing with two at a time is a problem.
The only improvement is that I learned to fry the plant zombies in the Lab to a crisp, so I don’t waste ammo on them later. Still, I had maybe a clip for Magnum left by the time I reached the train, and no shotgun ammo at all.

Unlike the original, there are less differences in cutsenes. The only major difference is who stabs the final form of Birkin in the eye. With Leon it is even more hillarious, as he blows half the train with a rocket launcher before doing so.

With that, I don’t see a point in playing Claire A, I think I’ve seen enough of that.

Tags Resident Evil 2

PC Gaming

Resident Evil 2 (2019)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 20, 2025

Completed Claire B scenario.
I’m ashamed that it took me so long to understand that those zombies are Dead Space necromorphs, basically. It’s often more efficient to cut their limbs off that to go for a headshot.

I also understood the logic with the .45 and 9mm ammo: it’s the same for grenades. You can only find flame rounds, and you can only craft acid rounds.

In the original, Sherryl pendant contained the vaccine. In the remake, it’s a key to open the vaccine locker.
As I mentioned in the original, Mr X was only chasing Leon, and Birkin was only chasing Claire. In the remake, they actually added a scene where Birkin tears Mr X when he tried to kill Sherryl.

Before the penultimate battle with Birkin Claire is given a minigun. This isn’t explained (in the original minigun was a bonus weapon for New Game+), and Claire doesn’t even seem to be surprised about it.

Finally battle on the train is made much more dramatic, thanks to 20 years of technological advancement and dynamic camera. But it’s still funny (common tropes, I guess) that Claire fires dozen Magnum rounds into monster’s eye, then poket it with a sharp stick, and that’s when the eye explodes.

Tags Resident Evil 2

PC Gaming

Resident Evil 2 (2019)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 19, 2025

The way the story was structured, I thought they would leave out the B scenario, but no, it’s there. Time for Claire B scenario then.
Confusingly, Claire has two pistols, both of them revolvers, though. One of them has ammo laying around, but it can’t be crafted, while for the second, it’s the other way around.
Lickers were giving me a lot of trouble with Leon, as unless you have a Magnum, they can’t be killed quickly enough. With Claire’s grenade launcher, it just takes a single grenade.

Betrayavous police chief Irons is introduced in a completely different manner. Instead of killing his daughter so she doesn’t turn into a zombie, he kidnaps Sherryl, and that’s how she loses her pendant.

We get to play as Sherryl in the orphanage. This is a classic stealth episode.
Actually, Claire has 3 pistols! 3rd is an automatic one, with an extended magazine. An the obsolete second revolver doubles as Magnum, which doesn’t make any sense, but is a cool idea.

Tags Resident Evil 2

PC Gaming

Resident Evil 2 (2019)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 17, 2025

Completed Leon’s scenario.

Once you get the upgraded Magnum, it becomes far easier, as before that it’s very hard to tell how many bullets a zombie will take. With Magnum, it’s just one.
There are plant zombies, making the same sounds as mushroom zombies from Last of Us. You need to shoot their weak spots, just like in Resident Evil 4, and you need to burn them down or they will come back again, just like in Resident Evil 0.

I enjoyed both final stage of Birkin and Mr X. I must say, probably one of the most enjoyable bossed in Resident Evil history. The only problem I have with them, same as with zombies, actually, is that it’s not clear if they are damaged based or just weak spots based. Think it’s the latter, and you can beat them even with a regular pistol, as long as you aim.

The most major part they changed is that in the original, Leon throws the sample after Ada’s “death”. In the remake, Leon drops it trying to save her from the fall.

Tags Resident Evil 2

PC Gaming

Resident Evil 2 (2019)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 16, 2025

I like the approach to Leon’s pistol. In the original, you could find an upgrade kit for it, with a stock that enabled burst fire. Here, you find an extended clip, then later the stock as well.
I made it harder on myself as I took the wrong turn to meet Claire and missed the shotgun key. So by the time I finally got back, I was running out of ammo and healing items.
They have a very interesting solution of how Leon is able to carry his arsenal. Since he has only 3 guns, they are rendered all the time: shotgun on the back, one of the pistols in the holster, and another at hand. The only thing the game doesn’t bother to render is the oversized stock, because it would probably clip through everything. Same goes for the cutscenes.
When I replayed the original, although it was a long time ago, again, it surprised me that Leon actually never met Tyrant. Here, you get to face both Birkin and Mr X. I guess they didn’t want to waste all the stalking tech. Fighting Mr X doesn’t seem to bring any benefits, just waste of ammo.
The alligator in the sewers is pretty standard by modern standards. But it still made me smile.
After Leon saves Ada he falls uncouncious, and we get to play her chasing the Evil Female a bit. She plays like Batman Arkham, able to see cables through walls. The episode is not too annoying, but I’m still glad it’s over.

Tags Resident Evil 2

PC Gaming

Resident Evil 2 (2019)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 14, 2025

Ironically, I planned to play Resident Evil 2 Remake after I finished Resident Evil 2 on Dreamcast. Then… I got distracted.
First amazing fact that I have to admit: real time graphics from 2019 look better than CGI from 1999.

Calling it a remake though is probably incorrect. It is it’s own game, that shares some of the key characters, but changes everything else. From how Leon and Claire meet at the gas station, to Leon exploring the part of the police station that was boarded in the original. This also includes RE4 style controls: over the shoulder camera, aiming, fast reload, no need for typewriter tape (unless you enable it) and autosaves.

The only other bit they kept from the original is a very small discrete inventory, that can hold only 8 items, no matter how small (a single key) or big (bunch of planks) they are. But there are now multiple inventory expansions available instead of just a single one.

Rules for zombies have also changed. In the classic games, I would always trade health for ammo: I would prefer a zombie to bite me, if I knew I’d pass it only once, instead of wasting half a clip on it. But now they are much quicker to grab you, and you go down in a couple of bites. Knives are now Last of Us shivs: you can use them up to 3 times to escape a grab, but then you need to find a new one.
Another interesting change: Lickers, the eyeless monstrocities, are actually blind now. They were always eyeless, but other than that, it didn’t affect gameplay of the original.

Tags Resident Evil 2

PC Gaming

Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 12, 2025

Completed all 5 original campaigns of Age of Empires 2.
Expected a lot of trouble from mission with Germans in Poland, since you don’t have any villagers, and fully depend on your allies to send cash. But no, it was rather easy.

One major problem I have with how the game plays is that’s walls are important, but it’s very hard to tell if they are blocking the enemy or not. Many times cavalry would squeeze between a wall I built and a gap which I couldn’t see due to isometric perspective.

After completing the game, I think that the Mongol missions are the most difficult. German might be large scale, but they are the Protoss of Age of Empires 2, with the best buildings, best infantry and some of the best cavalry as well.

It’s interesting how each campaign tells a different story. The German is the best in this sense, with Henry the Lion betraying you not once but twice over 6 missions, then with the final reveal that he’s also the narrator.

Tags Age of Empires

PC Gaming

Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 12, 2025

In Diablo 2, 3 and Immortal I always like to play as Paladin/Crusader the most. So I was obviously disappointed, but not surprised that this class was missing from Diablo 4.
This is finally will be amended:

Also, I like how this trailer is full of toxic masculinity and basically about a black guy beating an asian guy, while the previous trailer was all about GenZ asian girl struggling with her internal struggles:

Jokes aside, someone did their homework, with the hammer flying in circles, just like Diablo 2.

Tags Diablo

PC Gaming

Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 11, 2025

What I like about Gengis Khan campaign is that again, you are tasked to recover a relic, but in fact there are two: one is held by a hostile tribe, and another is hidden away.
Other than that, it’s pretty similar to Saracens campaign, except instead of building camel riders and camel throwers you build horse archers and more horse archers to make a porcupine impression out of anyone who disagrees with you.
The first mission that really annoyed me is the Great Chinese Wall one. Not because Chinese are actually a great counter to the mongols with their rocket carts, arbalests and lance cavalry. But because you’re never told that one of the 4 AI opponents is building a Wonder, that triggers a timer until mission fails (go figure the logic behind it). And that opponent is on an well protected island, so you really need to know what you’re doing.
I ended up using the French strategy to beat this mission. Instead of building a base behind the wall as intended, I transported all my peasants to the island, then fast-teched into Castle Age and built a castle: islanders don’t build rams or trebuchets. Once Wonder was not an option anymore, I moved back to the mainland. Still, it probably took me a good hour to beat the other 3 factions into submissions and hunt all their villagers. Who. Would. Not. Relent.
After this mission beating Russia and Persia is easy, despite the supposed need to control two camps at once. And I expected that the final mission for holding the bridge will be the toughest, because in previous one you are tasked with building three castles, which is a lot, and on my first try Bohemians actually destroyed all of them. But this mission is the easiest, Hungary barely attacks, and then you are given a ton of legendary units.

Tags Age of Empires

PC Gaming

Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 8, 2025

Second campaign I play is for Barbarossa (Teutons).

It plays exactly as you’d expect: toughest buildings in the game and toughest infantry, so you just overpower your opponent as long as you have the Castle to build your Teutonic knights.

It felt too similar to France campaign, though, so I decided to try Saladin instead. The story is a strange propaganda how Saracens are so much better than Norman crusaders, but anyway.

For some reason, camel riders are efficient against cavalry. And the special unit is a camel rider tha throws swords? But it’s a simple game plan: you build a lot of fast camel cavalry and destroy your opponent that programmed to use cavalry as well.

The only interesting bit is that in the last mission Richard Lionheart deploys unique trebuchets against you, called Bad Neighbour.

Tags Age of Empires