Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015)

"V has come to."

I played this when it came out on the Playstation 4 and even got the Platinum Trophy for it. Now, after 11 years I do the same but on PC. This is a 'solid' (pun intended) contender for a game that is infinitely replayable or at least worth revisiting on a semi-yearly bases.

I enjoy games about stealth. The Assassin's Creed series, Hitman, Tom Clancy's games, and the occasional Sniper Elite. However, none of these games managed to reach this height of stealth sandbox that MGS:V offers.

Me and a friend playing the Co-op mod.

While the story is incomplete due to the whole Kojima fiasco, when he left Konami on less than ideal terms. I'm glad they went ahead and released this game. 

To me the story of the Metal Gear franchise is a mixed bag of real world conflicts and fictitious advanced technology. Having only played Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, 4: Guns Of The Patriots, and V: The Phantom Pain to completion. The main appeal to me is the stealth and military setting of the franchise. With the weakest thing to me in all of them, is whenever the Mechas are unveiled, aka the metal gears. Metal gears are always treated in the world of the games as the ultimate Dreadnaught; a weapon surpassing nuclear weapons, despite being a platform to launch them! Oh and I dislike Mechas in general.

I love the nerdy gun facts of MGS3 and it's setting. I love the actual gameplay of MGSV and freedom to complete your missions in any way you want. But man! Is the story so convoluted and complex for the sake of being complex and nothing else. My friends' group grew up on this series, unlike me. I don't have a favorite character or moments from these games. I'm here for the fun gameplay and cool setting. With that said I'd like to try and play Peace Walker, it released recently as a remaster and I might grab it during a sale. I'm hesitant due to the low graphics quality of the game, but I'm really curious about it.

Your base of operations: Mother Base, has some nicely designed signs and iconography, that always manage to catch my eye. In my head, these signs are made to be as clear as possible to account for the fact that the soldiers of Mother Base are from all around the world; and thusly speak different languages! So having a universally designed signs to break the language barrier—Same as the pictograms of the Munich Olympics of 1972 (Watch this video for context)—is a really cool touch.

In the end. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is The most definitive stealth game in the world, undisputed since 2015. Fun movement options and numerous available playstyles are valid and accounted for. In addition to a vast arsenal of toys, gadgets, and weapons for you to tinker around and experiment with. 

Remember to press every button and have fun!

Links:

• Steam - Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
• YouTube - The Man Who Created a Universal Visual Language

The Hunt for Red October (1990)

 Was pleasantly surprised by this one.

Based on Tom Clancy's novel with the same name. This movie had my eyes glued to the screen; they managed to make a movie about submarines that engaging!

It is also filled with your typical military/naval jargon, that I have come to be familiar with after playing the best submarine game: Cold Waters (2017). Words like: baffles, screws, towed sonar array and many more. 

The movie is starred by:

The Los Angeles class submarine

The DSRV 'Mystic'

The Alfa class submarine

And the largest submarine ever constructed:

The Typhoon class submarine

This movie's establishing shot made me do the Leonardo DiCaprio's pointing meme in real life. As I saw that the movie has chosen the Jane's (an open-source intelligence company) Fighting Ships 1977-78 book. Sine I already have a copy of Jane's Fighting Ships of World War II on my shelf! 

As I can't really recommend this particular edition since I don't really have it. I would recommend you flip through the World War II edition of Jane's.

Overall a fun and must-watch for any navy/military nerd.

Links:

• Letterboxd - The Hunt for Red October
• Steam - Cold Waters
• Wikipedia - Los Angeles class submarine
• Wikipedia - DSRV-1 Mystic
• Wikipedia - Alfa class submarine
• Wikipedia - Typhoon class submarine
• Wikipedia - Janes Information Services
• Internet Archive - Jane's fighting ships, 1976-1977
• Internet Archive - Jane's fighting ships of World War II

Victorian dresses (1837 - 1901)

Pictures and illustrations of Cute and pretty Victorian era dresses 

Auguste Toulmouche - Dans la Bibliothèque

Jan Frederik Pieter Portielje - The Love Letter

This one, I'm not so sure about it's source. Supposedly it's from the Illustrated Police News December 11, 1869.

A duel between two ladies - Illustrated Police News December 11, 1869

Auguste Toulmouche - Dolce far niente

I like this navy themed one a lot. It's so Cute! Sadly, I couldn't find the source for these ones too.

William John Charles Pitcher - H.M.S. Pinafore costume

Book recommendation: Victorian Fashions: A Pictorial Archive.

Now this here book is exactly what it says on the cover, 123 pages filled with many illustrations of Victorian fashion goodness, mainly dresses. The book only has illustrations and the year that the trend came out, and that's it! So, if you're actually looking for reading material this is not the right book to look up. However, if you're like me and just want to look at pictures then, this is the book for you.

Way of the Hunter (2022)

 This game fulfills a primal need.

I bought this game with minimal expectations and I was quite pleasantly surprised with it. The game has many licensed guns—which is the reason I got interested in the first place—from brands such as: Beretta, Remington, and a smaller brand that caught my eye, called Strasser.

Although I had to buy Strasser's guns separately as a DLC I chose a good time to grab them; as the game was on sale.

The gameplay is competent; having many mechanics that would make the game feel like a simulation but, it has great difficulty settings to shape the experience that you'd like to get; more simulation or more arcade-like. 

With my selected difficulty, the animals leave some blood trails to make tracking them easier, in addition to having the hunter senses ability to make identifying, finding and, tracking animals much more easier. Without subtracting from the core experience, that require a lot of waiting and actively looking for preys constantly.

From mechanics like bullet trajectory being affected by gravity and wind, to managing and influencing the gene pool of a specific species; hunting older/younger animals, or specifically hunting lower trait animals to leave the stronger ones to reproduce.

The game shows you how 'good' your shot was in killing the animal. The energy within your selected caliber, the organs you damaged or penetrated in a neat three dimensional X-ray bullet camera, once you interact with the shot animal.

I would've liked a dog as a hunting companion to complete the experience and more guns in the base game, with differing quality, and older robust wood furnished guns.

I realized after I bought the game that the sequel was about to release in early access, with some of my complaints being addressed in it.. Just my luck, huh?

Reading recommendation relating to the topic: 

The Complete Encyclopedia of Hunting Rifles and Shotguns by A. E Hartink.

This encyclopedia is a fun read with many nice pictures. (I have the 2004 edition, which has some added and removed entries from the original 1997 edition. Like the removal of the Mossberg entry from my 2004 edition and the addition of TOZ.) 

With many beautiful specimens like the Krieghoff Plus combination gun; as in multiple calibers in one gun! Or the artistic engravings on the Lebeau-Courally shotguns. 

Sorry for the lack of images on this one; as I don't have a scanner to show you the pages of my book in great detail. You can check the 1997 edition on the Internet Archives, albeit with poorer quality photos within the pages.

Links:

• Steam - Way of the Hunter
• Strasser - The STRASSER RS 14 hunting rifle
• Internet Archive - The complete encyclopedia of hunting rifles: a complete guide to shotguns and other game guns from around the world.

Jeeves and Wooster (1990)

 A splendid British classic!

I got into this show through a weird roundabout way; I recently—at the time of writing—learnt that an old search engine called Ask Jeeves has been sadly terminated after many years of service. This marked the first time that I've heard of the name Jeeves.

Now, this wasn't the only thing that pushed me to look forward to watching the show, I was window shopping some old books on Amazon, there I spotted The Encyclopedia of Trivia by Worth, Fred L, published 1974 and what I usually like to do with any book that catches my attention, is that I look for the book on the Internet Archive to assess whether the book is worth acquiring or not. By complete chance, as I was skimming through the pages, I landed on the name Jeeves. The entry says:

"Butler of Bertie Wooster in P.G. Wodehouse novels".

At that moment my curiosity was at it's peak. I had to look it up. Through Wikipedia I learned about the existence of the show.

cool vintage cocktail suitcase!

I'm now in season two and I must confess: The two couples getting engaged and then unbetrothed multiple times for the silliest of reasons, is really getting quite dull and samey. 

Cool picnic basket!

The main appeal for me is the character of Jeeves. A seemingly unassuming butler, who is mysteriously more classy than his employer and is cunning in a most underhanded way to achieve his, or his master's goals.

Cool breakfast tray!

Bonus: Looking up this type of silverware, I discovered the term Hukin & Heath. Which is a manufacturing firm for silversmiths and electroplating.

Links:

• Wikipedia - Ask.com
• Ask.com (formerly Ask Jeeves)
• Wikipedia - The Trivia Encyclopedia
• Wikipedia - Jeeves - Adaptations
• Antiques Boutique - Antique silverware