Completed Cultic.
I didn’t expect to have sniper mechanics in a boomer shooter. You can hear them cock their rifle before they fire.
Flamethrower is extremely useful in the second episode. It has a fantastic ammo to damage ration, and surprising range.
I could do with a third episode, really. Finished the game in about 5 hours, and didn’t get tired of the mechanics yet, which happens rarely. But then, it’s a neat an nicely wrapped story, told mostly through the journals of a private investigator that infiltrates the cult and a researcher that works with them.
The second and final boss is a “wall boss”. But it’s 3D, and nicely animated, so no complaints:
I wrote about the game quite extensively when I tried the demo, of all things (I never play demos). The full game has somewhat easier jumps, but other than that, it’s very close to my impression from the demo. It’s a faithful homage to Blood, with heavy emphasis on dynamite.
At first there’s the mechanic from Doom 3 where you need to hold a lighter in one hand in dark areas, and so can only operate one-handed weapons. But after a few levels you get a proper flashlight.
I didn’t expect the first boss to be a German tank.
Not after cultists, skeletons and demons I’ve been fighting. But then, the arsenal is also heavily WW2 themed, with FG42 and Sten, despite the game taking place in ’60ies. Maybe that’s just Return to Castle Wolfenstein influence.
I have played Dark Reign and even completed it around 2002 (the game came out in ’97). But I didn’t know it was actually quite the financial success, selling over 300K copied, when the authors expected 30K to break even.
Also, turns out it was initially developed by just two guys. And that their approach was to build the game engine, and then use it to build the game, which was groundbreaking in 1997. One of the lead developers later went to work at Blizzard, and I wonder if that had any influence on a very similar approach of StarCraft.
Also, turns out Dark Reign 2 was developed by a different team, because most of the developers of the original relocated from Australia to USA, to work for Activision, which paid x4.
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Outer Worlds
Completed Outer Worlds.
The second DLC, Gorgon, feels so much like the starting location of the game that one of the characters makes a comment about it. The main revelation is that the marauders, which we meet across the system, aren’t just deranged humans, but they were created by Spacer’s Choice.
Unlike Murder on Eridanos which is very self-contained, this DLC does force you to go back and forth around the system a bit. But other than that, it’s rather… unremarkable.
All companion quests are mostly… non-consequential. Except Nyoka, maybe. But running around the system to help an asexual-lesbian with a date?
Honestly, I did expect some bigger guns. Maybe a minigun, or an antitank rifle? I ended up running with the same sniper rifle and LMG most of the game. And the only science weapon I found useful was the gun that makes enemy float Mass-Effect-like.
The final prisonbreak is nice, as if you helped different settlements, they come to your aid at different points in time on different levels of the panopticon.
There are no major final revelations. No, Phineas is not an alien, or The Devil. The only setup for the sequel, if one is to come, is the fact that the Earth hasn’t been communicating with the colony for 3 years, and that the last cruiser (one out of two) sent there disappeared.
And it’s nice that they put together a very thorough epilogue in the best traditions of Fallout. It does give a feeling of closure, and that it wasn’t for nothing.
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Balvenie 14 Year Old Caribbean Cask Whiskey
17th bottle from the Advent Calendar. I thought that I tried another Balvenie already, and I was right. It was the Balvenie 12 Year Old Double Cask. This one is what I’d call “supermarket grade whiskey”. It’s rather smooth for a Scotch, with plenty of sweetness and some warmth. A decent whiskey for sure. But for 63GBP, there are much better options, in my opinion.
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Star Wars Outlaws
I didn’t play Star Wars Outlaws, and I’m not sure I will. But can we talk about how boring and basic the designs are?
The pistol is M1911 with a bulb light on top. The jacket is 80’s, the haircut is 90’s, the createure is a mix of axolotl and that Disney dragon with fur.
On the left with have futuristic Tibet, and the right a Blade Runner.
Yeah, I know that the original Star Wars were scrapped from “samurai easterns” and World War 2. But this, this is simply uninspired. And not inspiring at all.
Completed Diablo 4.
Legendary items aren’t the rarest type of item, that’s why their names are so generic. That’s the bit I didn’t understand, or maybe forgot. Finally got my first Unique item. From a Treasure Goblin again, I think.
I know I complained that story bosses are useless. Well, Duriel dropped two unique items. Yes, there’s Duriel again.
The battle cinematic reminded me of those times when we were playing a game just to see the next cutscene. It’s that good.
It’s strange writing that both Donan’s (the fat guy) death and Neryelle loosing her hand are so… Offhand. Neryelle gets bitten by a random zombie, and Lorath has to chop her arm off, and Donan gets poked by a zombie column. Remembering how they offed Decard Cain in Diablo 3 like he wasn’t the cult character in the first two games, that’s nothing.
What I do have trouble with is… consistency. I know this is a story about angels and demons (and divorced parenthood). But why Mephisto is in some kind of a bubble?
Is Diablo and Baal also in bubbles somewhere? Lilith says that this is an eternal battle, because things like hatred won’t just disappear. But then her dying is suddenly a big thing? I mean, can’t she just reappear in a bubble like Mephisto?
After all, we killed Andariel and Duriel at least twice already.
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Outer Worlds
I usually don’t bother with DLCs, by the time I get to them, I’m to tired of the game. But Outer Worlds gets the balance just right: not too difficult to become tiring or feel like grind, not too easy to become boring.
So, I went for “Murder on Eridanos” (clear reference to “Murder on the Nile”). Except Puerott didn’t carry a heavy machinegun with him everywhere. But at least many NPCs make jokes about that.
The new mechanic in the DLC is an investigation scope, which is a bit like Batman: Asylum series, but a scope.
The investigation takes place in a megahotel, which is full of people infested with make-happy parasites. Reminds very much of “We Happy Few”, up to the screams of “Laugh louder” when they try to club you to death.
You get ridiculous amounts of XP, but the enemies also become ridiculously tough, surviving 3 headshots from fully upgraded sniper rifle 🤪
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Berry Bros & Rudd Sherry Cask Whiskey
16th bottle from the Advent Calendar.
I love Sherry Casks. But at first I was warry of this one, because the smell was very sharp and alcoholic, despite just 45%. Must admit though, the taste is very sweet, and it makes your head light as if it was all 60%. For 45GBP, it’s a no-brainer, and probably one of the best whiskeys from the calendar yet.
Getting a triple boss in a dungeon for the first time is fun. Getting the same triplets for the third time… not so much.
Speaking of fun, the story bosses drop junk, but the Treasure Goblin dropped an actually useful bow that randomly creates a pool of poison, and while you’re standing in that pool, your poison attacks are free. Finally a mechanic that is not just about shooting monsters in their faces.
Elias is supposed to be some kind of a villain, and he certainly gets a lot of people killed, but for a good reason, it seems? He’s cullying humanity, because invasion is inevitable. So only the strong will survive to fight the demons. Makes sense to me.
By September maximized my relationship with Yosuke, which has double benefits: the character gets their ultimate persona to use in battle, and you get one of the ultimate personas to fuse.
The best storyline so far is by Yumi, a girl that tries to reconcile with her dying father whomlwft her family for another woman:
On a schooltrip we meet Chihiro from Persona 3, who’s now in her final year. Which means that the game is set a year or two after the events of Persona 3. I haven’t thought before that those games even happen in the same universe.
I was completely blown by the fact that they have special portraits for when the party gets drunk in a nightclub.
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Dragon’s Milk beer
I love Imperial Stouts. So naturally, when I was in Trader Joe’s in the US and saw an the Dragon’s Milk Imperial Stout, I decided to try it out. Of course, because it’s the US, they were only sold in packs of 4.
Was it worth shipping it across half the world? Absolutely. I know there’s a misconception that Americans don’t understanding anything about food, but that’s all it is, a misconception. It’s everything you expect from Imperial Stout and more. Glad that I still have 3 more bottles left, should keep me until the end of the year, I hope. And if you’d thought that 11% is their limit: they’re also producing a 18% one.
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Outer Worlds
Still impressed by the fact that upgrades change how every weapon looks. A lot of games don’t bother with that at all.
Obsidian sure knows their scifi. Quests here are named “Canid’s Cradle”, “Slaughterhouse Clive”, “Flowers for Sebastian” and “Stainless Steel Rat”
The good thing about loot autoleveling with you: you always find something useful down the path. The bad thing: you don’t have much reason to explore, because… you always find something better later on.
Funny how the locals on Monarch are like “who do we think we are, cannibals? That’s just corporate lies!”, and then there are literally at least two quests dedicated to… cannibals.
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Glenfarclas 12 Year Old
15th taster from the Advent Calendar. All I can say, it’s a whiskey. It’s not particularly good or bad, in my opinion, maybe has a bit longer aftertaste and warmth than most, but nothing that would amaze me.
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Outer Worlds
To distinguish itself from brown and green Fallout, I guess, Outer Worlds is all pink and orange.
The local version of VATS is slow-mo, not time-freeze, but it works fine as well.
Flaws system is interesting, since instead of being chosen at the start of the game, like Traits in Fallout, you get those as you go. Something like “Robophobia, -1 Dexterity when near robots, but +1 perk”.
Surprised that I did quests in the wrong order in the “toothpaste research” area, and the scientist I was about to rescue got eaten by raptors before I could do so. Forgot that timed quests existed.
There’s a quest chain to aquire unique prototype “science” weapons. The first one I’ve got is a hammer that switches between its elements with every strike. Then there’s also a shrinking pistol, which is a love-letter (or is it a love-pistol?) to the 50s sci-fi:
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Razer Deathstalker Pro
I figured out that I like low profile keyboards by now, so I decided to give Deathstalker Pro a try.
The good: red switches are quiet, comparable to Keychron brown switches, maybe even quieter. It also has a 2.4 dongle built in, just like Deathadder V2 mouse.
But it wobbles. Like the rubber feet are misaligned slightly or something. An also the keys feel more “mushy” than on Keychron. Although this might have to do with red switches.
What’s more, it doesn’t play nice with Macs at all. Keychron has a Mac switch, and comes with Mac keycaps for Command/Option. I had to use Keychron caps on Deathstalker, and a custom script to properly map those keys. And Razer Synapse 3 is not supported anymore on OSX, and Synapse 2 doesn’t support any of the new hardware 🤷♂️
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Babylon Berlin
Finished listening to Babylon Berlin, and despite not expecting much from the book initially, I must say it ended up being somewhat of a disappointment. Too much in the story is just left to chance: someone shot, missed, but hit something else – Deus ex Machina at its finest. Or worst.
Maybe I’d give TV series a try, but certainly not the next book in the series.
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Outer Worlds
I can’t decide if it’s more of a New Vegas, Skyrim or Mass Effect. But it’s rather enjoyable nevertheless. Despite “moral choices” can be confusing at times, just like in New Vegas.
Compared to Borderlands, that has a very similar Wild West aesthetics and shooter mechanics, it has two advantages in my eyes. First, I don’t run out of ammunition nearly as often as in Borderlands. And second, the weapons aren’t a generated mess. Yes, you do have some better drops here and there, but overall, the arsenal is much more predictable, if a bit boring. You get your usual pistols, assault rifles, shotguns, and a LMG, much earlier than expected, I must admit.
I’m also glad that this is less of a “seamless world” and more of a set of well defined and contained areas. Again, more of an Mass Effect than New Vegas.
Nintendo has an entire Mario spinoff series dedicated to 2D characters in a 3D world. Link in this game has a similar concept: he can turn into a chalk image, which technically works as if he clings to a wall. Yeah, like Solid Snake. Solid Link, maybe?
Believe it or not, they added some Souls elements in this game. You can invade other worlds, which I can’t try because the game is so old now, and I never cared about invading anyway. And you loose some of your items when you die, then you need to buy them back.
Speaking of items, unlike most other games in the series, where you get an item, complete a dungeon with it, get another item, complete another dungeon, here you get a lot of items right away.
Just after two dungeons Link gets the Master Sword, faces Yuga, the local villain, and traverses to the world of Lorule (obvious pun on Hyrule), that is ruled by Princess Hilda. The world is a darker version of Hyrule, and irony which is not lost on me, since Hyrule was always so chirpy. The enemies hit twice as hard, and are much, much harder to kill.
From this point, the game is a bit less linear, the order you complete the next seven dungeons seems to be mostly up to you.
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Norway, 1 July 2024, Monday
Morning
The curtains in the hotel room are impossible to close properly, so I was woken by the bright sun around 6AM. Ironically, I think it was never as sunny during the day, as it was at 6AM.