One Happy Team…

Modern Warfare 2 (2022) multiplayer

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date April 24, 2023

Me before Modern Warfare 2 (2022) free trial:
– Why nobody likes it?
Me after the free trial:
– Oh, OK, now I see…

The most played Cold War mode is Demolition. It’s fun, because it requires some teamwork: one team needs to blow two bombs, another denies them. In Modern Warfare 2… there’s no Demolition.
Instead, everybody plays on a map called Shipment, which is so tiny that your enemies can spawn on top of you. So it’s a constant bloothbath.

The funny part is that since the map is so small and requires no skill, I’m constantly at the top, just firing my LMG in all directions.

Tags Call of Duty, Modern Warfare, multiplayer

PC Gaming

Sinking City

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date April 20, 2023

Early in the game you meet a librarian with her mouth sewn. Later, there’s an interesting sidequest related to her, where you need to hunt the witch that did that to her. There’s even a boss fight and a video sequence leading to this, which is not something I’d expect from a sidequest. Leaves an impression.

There are infested areas, where you encounter more monsters and supposed to find more loot. But the mechanics work in such a way that you usually waste more ammo that gain. So I just tend to keep away from those areas.
For half of the game we’re looking for that antropologist that would help us understand the visions. And a few minutes after we find her, she just… drowns. What a disappointment.

Tags Sinking City

*.DOC

Consider Phlebas, Iain M. Banks

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date April 11, 2023

I’ve been listening to this book for quite a long time now, but still haven’t formed an opinion on it.
It is certainly well written, albeit a bit lengthy on details. It has some interesting ideas: the protagonist can change his appearance, albeit it takes him a few days to look like someone else. He also has implanted poisonous nails and spit.
The intergalactic conflict is between basically humans and a warrior race, but the hero is on the side of the gorillas, because he thinks that humans rely on their supercomputers too much.
But all in all, it’s a pirate story that would fit Stevenson, and I mean Robert Louis Stevenson. The hero is ejected during a battle between two battleships, picked up by a basically privateer crew, gets shipwrecked on a cannibal island. Escapes to follow the privateer captain to basically a poker game. Even him taking over captains identity is exposed so quickly its insignificant.

Tags Iain M. Banks

PC Gaming

Sinking City

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date April 3, 2023

I know it would be a delight. And it really is.
The name is an obvious reference to the Sunken City. And the game is full to the brim with those references, not just Lovecraft, but also Poe (of course), Heinlein, and others.

But the actual city is also half flooded with water. So, sometimes we travel on foot, other times – on a boat. Luckily the boat spawns near every harbor.

Interesting part is that you have a map, but no automarkers. Instead, you’re given description of places, and you need to guess where are the point of interests on the map.

Bullets act also as currency. I think that was the same for the first Metro.
As a private eye, a most of our time we spend on investigations. Investigations are usually split into two parts. First, you find all the clues in the area. Then you need to recreate the sequence of events. Which isn’t really hard, to be honest, not close to Obra Dinn, as there are usually just 3-4 events. Again, you usually aren’t told where to go. You need to search different archives for clues: police, newspaper, asylum, and others. It’s another minigame, where this time you need to find an article or a profile based on a couple of hints.

Tags Sinking City

PC Gaming

Othercide

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 31, 2023

Dropped on the Deacon boss. I like the art style, but the combat is very repetitive, and the boss battles are not intuitive. Simply stopped enjoying it at some point.

Tags Othercide

*.AVI

Chainsaw Man

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 31, 2023

If the first half of the season was impressive to say the least, the second half is mindblowing.

It’s an incredible muscle flex.
Basic principles of animation is that frames are expensive, backgrounds are cheap. You can have a single background for thousands of frames. That’s why you generally avoid “camera movement” in animation: it moves the background.
And that’s exactly what they’re doing here. They rotate the camera, in a rather mundane scenes, or show scenes from different angles. Something common to movies, although still not cheap. And extremely rare for anime.

What else did they do? Unique ending for every episode. Again, that’s something you just don’t do. Animation is expensive! So, you draw one outro, and use it for 6, 12, maybe even 24 episodes. But those crazy bastards decided otherwise.

*.BAK

Vocation Honeycomb Chocolate Stout

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 31, 2023

I like stouts. This one is oversweetened, and hits like a pillow. One can, and everything goes quiet for a while.
I think I grabbed it from Waitrose, or maybe M&S.

Tags beer

PC Gaming

Cold War multiplayer

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 28, 2023

I continue to play Cold War multiplayer an hour a day.
Meta is heavily dominated by SMGs. That’s a surprise, I was expecting sniper rifles. SMGs also have the widest variety. There are just 4 LMGs, but 12 SMGs.
With the crazy customization the game provides, you can also make an improvised LMG from a SMG:

Tags Call of Duty, Cold War

*.AVI

Peppermint

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 26, 2023

Been planning to watch this for ages, without any particular reasons. Just stumbled upon a trailer, and I also like Jennifer Garner.
This is a Female Punisher, basically. Husband and daughter of a bank worker are killed by a gang of a drug dealers. Five years later, she comes for revenge.
There’s a strong influence from John Wick on how everything is filmed. Holding firearms close, shooting point-black, all that stuff.
The only interesting parts are how Jennifer treats her wounds. At one point, she uses a surgical stapler, then wraps it with a silver tape. At another point, she uses a sanitary pad to stop bleeding from a stab wound. She’s still very resilient, and survives even a bullet wound or two.

*.AVI

Chainsaw Man

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 25, 2023

Started watching Chainsaw Man, and I got just two things to say:

Anime is not dead. Or it has been resurrected
Attack on Titan changed the world forever. Like Berserk did before it.

Tags Chainsaw Man

*.AVI

Slow Horses S01

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 24, 2023

Finished watching Slow Horses.
What I can say is that it’s very British. Both the setting and the themes. “I’m not Pakistani, I was born in Birmingham”, “that’s a follie and not a medieval castle”.

Gary Oldman is brilliant, but that’s expected. He’s basically repeating Smiley’s role from “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”. Which is ironic, because the characters also directly reference John le Carre novel in the series.

Storywise, I felt like they couldn’t decide if it’s a story about fuckups, as we’re constantly been told, or about superagents, as River character seems to be able to outrun a car and overtake experienced agents in hand to hand combat with ease.

I mildly enjoyed it, as I enjoy seeing London in movies, and I’m a sucker for spy dramas. But it’s probably not for everyone.

Tags Slow Horses

*.BAK

Gruut Wit and Corsendonk Agnus Tripel

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 21, 2023

Tried a couple of beers we brought from Belgium.

Gruut Wit was a disappointment. To me, it had zero smell and zero taste. Just poured it into the sink.

Corsendonk Agnus Tripel was surprisingly gaseous and with a very stubborn “head”, which is uncommon for a tripel. It was nice, but nothing spectacular in terms of taste to compensate for the gases.

Tags beer

*.AVI

Euphoria S01

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 19, 2023

Watched the first two episodes.
Didn’t expect that this series will make me think. “Sex Education” or “13 Reasons Why” never did that to me.
Yes, it’s oversexualized, and that party from the first episode looked ridiculous.
But I also find that some parts strike very true. What do you do with your life if you can’t ever feel happy (unless you’re on drugs)?
Zendaya is indeed fantastic. Great range of emotions, and also great mix of them.
Another surprise: it shows what a true friendship is, in forms of Fezco and Lexi. When making a show such as this, it’s easy to paint it all black, or make unrealistically cool friends like the Latino dude from “13 Reasons”. But a true friend is someone who’s ready to piss for you in a bottle in the middle of the night.

Also, I discovered that those three are different actresses 🤦‍♂️
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2244205/
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1708957
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2858875

And that it is an adaptation of… an Israeli series 😬

Tags Euphoria

PC Gaming

ReCore

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 19, 2023

The story feels extremely boring and generic. A teenage girl wakes up from criosleep on a planet that was due to be terramorphed. She’s looking for her father or other colonists. She also has a companion, a robodog.

It’s a sandbox about a sand planet, which I find quite ironic. There’s a lot of platforming: you immediately get double jumps, air dashes, and also introduced early to air recharges of those. During fights, you lock onto your enemies, and need to jump over their attacks. You get experience from fights, leveling up your basic weapon and your companion.

There’s also a finishing move you can pull on damaged enemies, which is basically a tug-of-war or a fishing game, where you need to pull the joystick at the right moment.

All enemies are robo-animals. Had to check that this game came a year before very similarly themed Horizon Zero Dawn.
You cannot tinker with your weapon, but you can customize four parts of your companion (head, front legs, back legs and not sure what’s the 4th, don’t care). All those are built from junk and enemy pieces you collect. There’s a lot of junk collection to be had.
The only interesting bit is some sand effects: you and your companion leave tracks in the sand, or a trail when you dash.

Tags ReCore

PC Gaming

Cold War multiplayer

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 16, 2023

Surprisingly, I enjoy Cold War multi-player a lot.
I didn’t enjoy Modern Warfare 2019 multi-player much, though. And I’m not a good player for sure. Not enough reaction, not accurate at all. Not sure if it’s the low skill bar or that most of the people moved to the two newer installations in the series. But I do manage to hit people here and there, and get that gun porn from customizing all the weapons.

Of course everyone looks like a bunch of clowns. That’s GenZ “expressing themselves”.

It gives that feeling of progression, though. After almost every match you get something, be it a new weapon attachment

Tags Call of Duty, Cold War

PC Gaming

Othercide

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 14, 2023

After XCOM came out, so many games adopted its 2 Action Points system, it basically became the norm. This makes Othercide more interesting, as it uses a 100 Action Points system instead. Well, not exactly. If you go past 50 points in one turn, it will penalise you. Kind of like XCOM does as well.
Other than that, there are three classes. There are “overwatch” stances for every class. After each level up your characters get to pick one of the two skills.

All that in a black/white/red palette, and with Bloodborne-like “plague” aesthetics.

Up to this point, it’s all nice. What’s less nice is permadeath. But that’s something I still can deal with. But some of the “rescue” missions become frustrating extremely quickly. There are simply too many enemies spawned every turn.

Tags Othercide

PC Gaming

Cold War

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 12, 2023

Completed Cold War.
In Cuba, you’re given the choice of saving just one of your teammates. Why someone would save a bearded Israeli dude instead of a hot British chick is beyond me, though.

The real fun starts on the next mission, though, back in Vietnam. Adler tries to guide your memories. But you can disobey him, so he has to invent different scenarios on the fly. By the end of it, it becomes quite crazy.

The main plot twist is quite similar to Metal Gear Solid 5. Bell is an invented identity, part of the MK Ultra program. In reality, he was one of the high ranking terrorists, that got shot during the airport ambush. Later, Adler implants some of his memories and a keyphrase (hello, BioShock) in order to create a bond between him and Bell, and to control his actions.

Final mission is a slight disappointment, though. Perseus escapes, and we never even see him. In that term, the ending of Black Ops was much more satisfying.

The game is also very short. Even with collecting all the evidence, solving the puzzles and disobeying Adler in Vietnam on every turn, the campaign ends extremely quickly. Which is a shame, since that’s one of the Call of Duty games I enjoyed the most.

Tags Black Ops, Call of Duty, Cold War

PC Gaming

Cold War

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 12, 2023

Now there’s a proper stealth system. You can also highlight enemies, pick locks, carry and hide bodies, and use enemies as human shields. This isn’t Hitman or Splinter Cell, of course, but still something.
Disco-arcade episode inside the Soviet base is brilliant. The moment when you go from Soviet brutalism to that neon and disco vibe:

Storywise: US decided to mine all the major European cities with neutron bombs, in case Soviets invade. Now a Soviet agent stole one of those bombs.
Interesting that they tie in Zakaev, the main villain from Modern Warfare.

The game does switch between characters. We play a bit as Mason in Yamantau, and get his signature glitches. Then we play as a KGB mole, Belikov, for a while.

Attachment mechanics in Call of Duty were always a bit wonky. So there’s no surprise that some Soviet soldiers have AK-47 so much customized it becomes RPK-74:

While finding some cool weapons like the Hand Cannon is a lot of fun, it’s also a bit pointless, since you don’t have a loadout before a mission.

Tags Black Ops, Call of Duty, Cold War

*.BAK

Lambiek Fabriek Oude Kriek Jart Elle

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 12, 2023

As can be expected from a lambic beer, it’s very sour. And also very foamy. Not too sweet though, which is great for a kriek.

Worth trying some other lambic from this brewery. But not this one.

Tags beer

Emulation

Daraku Tenshi

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 9, 2023

Another obscure fighting game. Uncharacteristically gritty: edgy characters, dimmed palette, even blood. Plays like SNK’s Art of Fighting: rather slow, almost no projectiles.

Rare case where prerendered backgrounds actually look good. The animations are outright impressive. There’s one particular stage, in a bar, where one of the tables is flying into the camera. That’s something Metal Slug pulled, but I don’t remember other games trying to do it.

Tags Daraku Tenshi