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.
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Tacticus.
Unlocked Hascule from the release event:
Unlocked Taumachus and Celestine from a single pull.
This is actually huge, as Celestine is one of the best characters in the game and costs 500 shards, while Taumachus can be useful in the Saim Han Mirror campaign.
First two hits against Celestine completely deflect the damage unto a summoned minion. Which means she is extremely hard to neutralize.
I’d be honest, I paid for Premium for this month, since I was farming Calgar anyway. That guaranteed my unlock of Calgar.
Unlocked Zkar, another Machine of War, from its release event.
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Lego Technics alternatives
Lego Technics sets are pricey. They are aimed at adults, but still, those usually cost around 300GBP. So there are plenty of Lego enthusiast that advocate for alternative brands: CaDA, Guly, Nifeliz, Mould King.
But here’s a thing. A lot of those alternatives don’t come in fancy boxes. Sometimes, you need to pay more to even get a box. Some have missing parts or even missing bags. And most of those models are not licensed: so you have names like Assassin instead of McLaren P1.
And once some of those alternatives like CaDA grow big enough to provide all of the above, guess what? They cost not significantly less.
Completed AirForce Delta.
Despite planes and landscape looking great for Dreamcast, the effects could be better. The explosions look like there’s three frames of animation, and shot down objects straight disappear.
Mission 12, that has you taken down a flying fortress (straight from Ace Combat 1) and a whole base is quite brutal.
But what really got me was Mission 14. It’s “shoot a crashing satelite” mission, but with enemy planes shooting at you. And with an incredibly tight time limit. I seriously considered dropping the game at this point, as it isn’t clear whatever the game wants you to do.
Then there is corridor run, where you fly though a mountain tunnel. But you also have to fight an enemy ace.
Then there is submarine hunt in the Arctic. Somebody was seriously copying Ace Combat 2 homework.
The penultimate mission is a marathon of time and missiles. There are so many targets, even hitting all of them almost depletes your stock, and so many enemies I continuously died from chip damage. And if that’s not enough, there is also a time limit.
Don’t know if it’s just my console, but half of the time I got killed on that mission, I had to hard reset as well.
I actually liked the last mission, though. It’s nothing special, just a duel between you and a fictional plane. But unlike Ace Combat 3 or Ace Combat Zero it doesn’t have any gimmicks like having to shoot it with a machinegun only. Yes, it is frustratingly maneuvrable, but nothing more.
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Resident Evil 2 (2019)
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.
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Amrut whiskey
2nd bottle was Teeling, an Irish whiskey I’m familiar with. I usually don’t drink single pot still whiskeys, but this one was quite nice, at 46% ABV. If I was told it’s Scotch, I would have believed it.
So jumping straight to 3rd taster, it’s Amrut. That’s a whiskey I’ve actually been waiting for. As I probably mentioned ready, Scotland and Ireland, best known for their whiskeys, are also the worst countries to make whiskeys. Taiwan, Israel, and now India figured that out. I assume this is the regular Amrut, as there’s just the 46 ABV statement (so not cask strength), and not peat in it (so not the Fusion, I guess). Also, there is no age statement. But, it is great: very sweet and rich, like some of the better sherry Scotch whiskeys. For its price of 43GBP, it’s a bargain.
Not sure if that’s a problem with GDEmu or the game, but I had to go through three different versions until I found one that’s working. First version would show “Please insert a disc”, second version would show the logo on the gamepad, but black screen. Turns out not HDMI adapter uses VGA interface, and not all of Dreamcast games were VGA compatible 🤯
Technically, it’s such a blatant Ace Combat clone I’m not even sure how it exists. The setting of a aerial border conflict between two imaginary nations, the style of the briefings, the music. Even how the reticle changes once you get into machine gun range.
Visually, it is what you’d expect: not as sleek as Ace Combat 4 on PS2, but obviously much more detailed than Ace Combat 3 on PSX. One example is how cockpit hood is transparent here, something PSX wouldn’t be able to pull.
They adopted a system from Ace Combat 2, where if you lose a plane, you need to buy it again. Which is a bit pointless, since you can always load your game.
Like Ace Combat, you carry ridiculous number of missiles. They home much better than in Ace Combat, but it’s a blessing and a curse, because they are also much harder to evade. One quirk I have is how it’s also hard to tell you were hit, there is almost no visual indication.
Of course there is a ravine flight mission. What kind of Ace Combat clone that would be without one?
Ironic that I’ve made the same mistake in this game I’ve once made in Ace Combat 2: kept playing on Novice controls for multiple missions until I understood what’s going on.
Speaking of controls, since Dreamcast didn’t have shoulder buttons, whose aren’t as good as Ace Combat. And unfortunately they also can’t be remapped.
One bit the game added is showing you the attack route on the map. That’s actually a nice touch.
The mission with the trains is impressive. There was a train in Ace Combat 3 already, but here you need to intercept multiple trains coming from different directions.
Last upgrade I planned for my Dreamcast was battery replacement. Dreamcast has a rechargable battery soldered to the board. Once it went dead (and those were made in 1999) the console would ask for a date every single time it boots.
Disassembling Dreamcast is easy. The solder points are also clear and unambigous. But when I tried to boot it, GDEmu would blink (so there’s some current), but the orange light won’t turn on. Turns out, the ribbon cable can be pulled on both ends, and while pulling it from the board, I also half disconnected it from the motherboard.
I also installed OpenMenu, a game dashboard, since GDEmu itself is very bare-bones, and doesn’t even have a list of games.
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Fistful of dollars
After Outlaws remake I suddenly understood I actually haven’t watched any of the classical Westerns as an adult: no Sergio Leone trilogy, no “Once Upon a Time” or “Magnificent Seven”. So I decided to start with Fistful of Dollars.
From the outset, I understood that I’ve seen the Eastern version, Yojimbo, and the version with Bruce Willis, “Last Man Standing”. All the key plots are there: Outsider pitting two rival gangs against each other, moral turning point with Mirasol’s rescue, the recovery in a mine, secret technique (in form of a steel bullet vest) and the final duel.
The dialogue works, because the characters don’t say much. Also, the camera work is interesting, although I’m not sure if it was innovative at the time. What don’t work are the shooting scenes: there’s no blood (cost and censorship), so people just fall akwardly. And those are very, very long. Like I get the soldiers were shot from a gatling gun, no need to spend minutes on that.
Also, the lipsync is completely off, because only Clint Eastwood was speaking English. Everyone else was speaking Italian or German, and later dubbed.
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Resident Evil 2 (2019)
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.
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Resident Evil 2 (2019)
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.
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Resident Evil 2 (2019)
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.
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Resident Evil 2 (2019)
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.
I’m a big fan of firearms history, so I was excited to learn about Mateba pistols, which are quite crazy:
Also featured here:
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LG 32GS95UV-B monitor
Burn-in is real. I discovered it while playing Resident Evil 2. At first I didn’t understand what this effect at the bottom of the screen supposed to be, is it some kind of shader? It turned out to be shadow of Windows task bar. And I don’t even use that monitor that much, as I work from my laptop!
Luckily, “OLED Image Cleaning” as LG calls it, helped remove it for now. But this is still very worrying.
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Resident Evil 2 (2019)
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.
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Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition
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.
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Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred
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.
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Genevieve, Brasserie Thiriez
There are multiple beers from differenent breweries named Genevieve. This one is from France, not a country associated with beers, although the town it’s brewed in is pretty close to Belgium, so maybe that’s the reason. I brought this beer from Denmark, since it wasn’t big on beer shops.
It’s supposed to be Belgian style tripple, but it doesn’t looks nor tastes like one. It’s not bad, just very different, almost more like an oaked cider than a beer. No head, but plenty of bubbles, just like in sparkling cider.
I said in the past that I’m yet to find a barrel aged beer I didn’t like. This might be the one. Although those are gin barrels, if I’m not mistaken.
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Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition
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.