bugarup

I had some ~*Dark Souls experience*~ with Fear and Hunger for myself over a weekend, that is, played a number of sessions without the savescumming mod and just let bad luck take me wherever. It went like this: † Won three Necronomicons in a row, won the coin toss to read them all without going mad and consequently dead, lost the toss to a monstrosity next door, died; † Had a lucky streak with good armor and weapons, won the coin toss for successful rest, but it appears that if you don't kill this one really weak enemy beforehand, he drags you to his torture room where you, well, eventually die; † Forgot to give the little girl I rescued from the cage her whiskey and opium, she got too sad and left; † Some **** of a mage sang my limbs away, fortunately was able to will myself into suicide; † Defeated some monstrosity surprisingly easily, it dropped a thing that would cancel annoyances like bleeding, infection and worms away, couldn't equip it because of cursed item in the slot; † Okay, "What if I jump into the latrine?" is entirely on me. And that's with mercifully brief combat. If I had to experience all this plus a drawn-out twitch-based fight before kicking it? Gimme that sweet Necronomicon. On the savescumming runs, one party failed forward straight into their goal, unfortunately the dude I was hired to rescue turned up dead, so hauled my arse all the way back to see if I were allowed to leave since what's the point of staying there anymore? Indeed I was allowed to leave, got "Ending E", which implied endings A, B, C and D. Went to game's wiki and it appears I missed, like, 90% of game? Okay good. Wasn't planning to quit it any time soon anyway.

Black Hawk Down. It is kinda amusing how a film about American event involving very American dudes has a cast with half, if not more, British actors. Also an Aussie and a Dane. Probably because the director was a Brit too.

Now when I think there's quite a number of games with great worlds made by solo devs. Fear and Hunger, Kenshi, RImworld, Stardew Valley...I probably should pay more attention to indie scene. If only itch.io weren't an embodiment of Sturgeon's law.

I'm a bit peculiar SW fan. Liked the original trilogy and even the next one also KOTOR, loved KOTOR2 and Andor, not a fan of idiots with laser sabers, space out knowledge that Extended Universe exists. Had no interest whatsoever in any SW game after SWTOR, which I still play sometimes but that's more like visiting Bioware's grave. Guess that makes me more of a Bioware fan than SW's.

Fear & Hunger, little indie horror RPG where horror seems to be tailored for my tastes. Creepy art, creepy disturbing soundscape, grotesque monstrosities, dungeons you can practically smell, so much to love It's also laughably unfair ("Hey hero, pick your traits. You wanna fast movement or tripper?") and unforgiving, which by itself wouldn't be too bad, but combine it with extra stingy save system and horror gets diluted with one of the most unfun things to experience, tedium. So after first twenty or so assortedly amusing deaths I installed 99 saves mod and can finally experience my atmospheric horror in nice short pieces before bedtime if I wish so. With its Wiki open though, because it doesn't explain mechanics and what are all these things in inventory either.

This reminds me I never did a playthrough where Mike pisses Mads off into leaving and then chooses her over the other people anyway. I wonder what Marburg would say.

Alpha Protocol. Did Rome and Taipei, then read that you get Veteran background when you specifically finish Recruit and not just any background, so started again with that. Yes, to get Veteran asap and totally not to stall the Brayko fight. I did get better with the game since ...what...14 years?... (okay lets not think about that), partially because I'm not playing it on a potato this time, but also because Dishonored and Prey taught me some patience and sneakiness I think. I still suck at shooting, and Marburg shanked me a couple of times before I learned how to properly mess with his pathfinding, but I didn't mind repeating this fight because dressing down Mikey gives to Marburg is still after all these years I try not to think about.

I wanted to do a red cabbage stew with red wine but the store I passed by didn't have any cheap sh†t and in the end I decided against using that kinda decent looking Primitivo on cabbages. Turns out balsamic vinegar does just fine alone if with enough seasonings.

So what didn't I play? Grounded (not on gog + ewwww multiplayer), Pentiment (not on gog), Dungeon Siege 3 (started it, but dropped and all I remember was a long linear corridor of bashing dudes. The older I get the more necessary the story is for me to not get bored with a game) and South Park (I have it on EA storefront and one day I'll muster courage to deal with EA storefront, real soon now ). KOTOR 2. First game of Obs I played. Also first game I went to whine about on social network because I was so angry about the ending, it was my etalon for horrible, terrible, no good disappointing endings until along came "Lost" and dropped the bar into deep deep abyss. It really stood out because everything up to it was so, so good. Helped me to figure out my own love/hate relationship with Star Wars. Neverwinter Nights 2. An example of how people who know how to write can elevate even the most derivative cookie-cutter setting. This is also the game that taught me RPG systems are fun. Before it, I countered all my problems by dropping difficulty. Didn't work on that red dragon. Had to read about how to beat her and -- "Oh hey, there's the whole system in it?! " I think I played every class there except fighters and barbarians because those are boring. And then there's Mask of the Betrayer which is Alpha Protocol. I don't know how many playthroughs of it I did. Something between 10 and 20, and that's only because I really sucked at it, if I were any good I prolly wouldn't have stopped playing it. Anyway, none of those playthroughs were like the other. I remember how I tried to goad Konrad into fighting me, but because I was on "Biiiitch. As$hole!" relationship with Madison he deduced Mikey wasn't genuine and bolted. And how it took like hours to down Brayko on a SMG run. SIE best girl. Fallout New Vegas. That's my videogame home, the place where I feel well, at home. I got the "I'm home..." feeling instantly as I left Doc's house. Then the game promptly crashed. Anyway, my PC was too weak for it and I haven't tried to play it for quite some time. Which was for the best given it's buggy launch infamy. Still haven't done a Legion run, there's something too realistically reprehensible about their brand of evil. Tyranny. All I knew was "You play a bad guy" so it was extremely pleasant surprise to find so detailed, rich world and lore. Also the art, the music, the magic system, the almost Alpha-Protocol levels of variables, it's all so I don't much care the ending was kinda eh. I don't have a clear favorite Obsidian game, rather a crowded little plateau on a peak where games constantly fight for a title. Tyranny is the most frequent winner there. Pillars of Eternity. Kickstarted it as by then I knew chances were high I'll love it. Then it sat in my game reserve of "If all games from now on gonna be rubbish I'll still have this". Didn't get into it from the start because it looked like yet another bog-standard vaguely medievalish fantasy with dorfs and elfs, yawnorama, but in the second attempt I reached the hanging tree and got hooked. Somewhen mid-game I found out there's a sequel and that was the first time I've heard of it. Insta-bought. Deadfire. It could be my second home because it's so pretty and music is great, and characters are alive, and I want to make separate build for every interesting weapon, and the amount of hours I sunk into it is in quadruple digits, if not for the fact it fried my video card once, keeps attempting to do so again and I remember these things. Still, another frequent champion of the plateau. Like, everything in it just clicks with me. The Outer Worlds. ... ... I don't know what happened. Like, I liked all the separate parts. Art. Music. Setting. Environment. "Corporations are the devil" schtick. First two companions are really good. Dialogs are witty. Weapons are nice. But the sum of all parts somehow turns into perfect representation of "Meh".

The Zone of Interest, that one about the Auschwitz commandant's family life. Very disturbing for a film that's about a group of highly unpleasant people doing nothing. That background churning sound was an actor in itself, I hope it got some sort of reward. All of us strangers. One of the most horrifying horror films I ever had a dismal pleasure to see. For some reason critics on Internet label this chilling horror as ~emotional drama~ or some sh†t and that really baffles me. (heavy spoilerinos ahead) So all in all great movie weekend, though I probably should've also replayed SOMA or Pathologic to complete that wondrous sensation of bleak misery.

Look at this tech forward guy with his fancy CDs, I still have a couple of drawers stuffed full of cassettes. Aaaaanyway, speaking of nineties. Here be a song that I think a lot of people born in the nineties have to thank for their existence, kind of like Hotel California and seventies.

Watched Dune 2 and it was boring. For a first entire hour, Brian Paul not-the-Messiah was trying not to be Messiah in the land of noble savages while having the most sterile romance this side of Anakin (was it because of sand? I keep hearing it can really ruin them romances) with absolutely nothing of interest happening save for cool new machinery getting exploded. Then Feyd-Rautha is introduced in black and white sequence for some reason, gets hyped out of proportions like a triple A corporate-manufactured video game and, later, fizzles out with a tiny fart just like as one, Brian drinks blue epiphany liquid, goes "F†ck yeah, lets be Messiah, dunno why I resisted for that first hour anyway", starts seeing all the futures and picks one where he wins, unfortunately it's the same one where everyone acts like idiots in order to let him win. Also Josh Brolin shows up outta nowhere mid-movie and contributes nothing. And ending's open, because of course it is. First movie at least was pretty with a great soundtrack.

News from Mordor. Russian billionaire who owns a number of metallurgy factories, things kinda essential for war machine, detained on account of him allegedly illegally privatizing them in the nineties, factories nationalized. Wonder if it's a start or just an episode. Please be a start.

She totes looks like a Kate and not a Cate. So much that my brain glosses over the name printed on the poster that's like, in front of me right now.

I'm more about Kate Blanchett of all people. Thought it was a photoshopped joke poster at first.

"So hey, Hollywood Fatcat 1, I hear viewers are getting tired of endless sequels and reboots, profits drop, we need to do something, but damn that's such a great formula, wonder if we can reinvent it somehow?" "I got ya, Hollywood Fatcat 2:" The Beatles: Sir Sam Mendes to direct four films - one about each band member

No idea, I only know him from that Spoony Experiment LP of Phantasmagoria 2. Which has definitely better acting than Breen's film, but kinda similar cinematography.

That trailer looks like one of those FMV adventure games from the nineties, like Phantasmagoria 2. And I would love to see Noah Antwiler's Lets Play of this movie

Lemme hazard a guess - he confiscated and, ah, utilized that 12 pack of moonshine? Obligatory "Not speaking for all Eastern Europeans blahdy-blah", but collapse of sovietistan was the best thing that happened to me in my entire life and I'd gladly go for loops of those really not as horrible as people think nineties if that was what required to never experience something like sovietistan again.

TGIF

Eurotrash's boring. Now, disco on the other hand....

Carl Anderson's "Heaven on their minds" was the very first rock thing I experienced, and it overwhelming my child mind with "This is life and this is me and this is everything" means it will forever sit on top of my Hoard of Sensations. I didn't see the full movie then, so the first full experience was the concept rock album too. I thought Murray Head to be boring compared to Carl Anderson, but Ian Gillan was...something else and then when I eventually saw the film Ted Neeley sounded underwhelming in comparison, though with time I warmed up to him. So I love both versions equally; that version of aughts is a travesty, though. And now for obligatory "WhyyyyYYYyyyyyyYYYYY":