Good morning giants and dwarves, welcome to Day 31 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
Funnily enough, 31 is also what the temperature is going to peak at today which is causing me no end to the suffering, everything hurts, and I am dying.
Summer is my least favourite time of the year which is impressive to say as someone who gets their ass kicked by SAD each winter, but at the very least I can manage that through different means without completely breaking the bank, but managing heat is different.
For context, the building I live in is rather old – Victorian era old. Whilst this is a fun talking point when people ask about it, it means that the walls are solid brick with no insulation and the windows are single-glazed at the same time as being over a hundred years old. What this results in is the flat becoming a clay oven in the morning when the sun hits it directly.
So the plan for today is to hunker down in the cooler spots of the flat, drink plenty of ice water, and avoid anything that causes sweating or exertion to stave off feeling gross & horrible.
I have to be honest, I am mainly posting this one to keep the streak going. The heat and head fogginess is combining to make my brain completely nonfunctional for creative purposes.
Thank you for reading this very short ramble, I am going to drown myself in ice.
Good morning killers and survivors, welcome to Day 30 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
One month.
One month since I got made redundant, and felt like my world had collapsed.
One month of writing every day to document my journey through unemployment.
One month of trying to share joy about the things I love.
It has not been easy, to be completely honest. Whilst a love of writing comes naturally to me, keeping on this route does bring some stress and strain to me, which feels weird to say given… every previous review I have written.
Possibly due to self-doubt, I currently find myself sitting here wondering if it is worth it to try to push towards writing professionally, especially as I return to the tech sphere on Monday. I still intend to write the Redundancy Review with no name change, but part of me wonders if I should just keep this a hobby, a passion I share with the world with no hesitation or desire for compensation.
Make it my escape from the world of tech rather than a new career path entirely – I still want to create, I still have plenty of stories to tell, I just do not know how best to… be a writer I guess. For someone who has been writing different pieces for around nine years now (think I got started in 2016 with GeekOut), albeit with very little consistency, you would think the self-doubt would go away.
Regardless, I am going to try to enjoy my time before I return to work. This period of unemployment has let me explore my different hobbies a lot more and make some improvements around the flat, but I am looking forward to having a regular source of income for a short amount of time.
Should be having some social time with friends today as well, which should be fun and give me a bit of time out the house.
Going to skip the call to action today, instead I want to ask for any encouraging words from other writers about getting past self-doubt. Wondering if I am doing good enough just by telling my story.
Time for the review, and considering I 100%ed another game last night I think that makes it a good time to talk about it – especially considering it comes from possibly my favourite franchise of all time.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is currently the latest entry in the beloved series, releasing in June 2021 for PS5 and later receiving a PC port in July 2023. For those unaware, I really like Ratchet and Clank, having almost every game collected in physical copies and having even written a full retrospective on the trilogy years back. Having skipped out on the PS5 because of being a broke ass bitch, I was excited to give the game a go.
It did not disappoint.
First off, this game is absolutely gorgeous. The characters are well lit, the models are extremely expressive & bouncy, and for the most part the framerate stays at a consistent 60fps even at 4K on my rig. Both Rift Apart and previous iterations of the franchise have been called “playable Pixar movies” with it not being difficult to see why, the art style really lends itself to that whimsical feeling.
The premise of the game is the return of series favourite villain Dr Nefarious stealing a device known as the “Dimensionator” and using it to cause a dimensional cataclysm that sees our titular protagonists thrown into a new world, meeting another Lombax in the form of Rivet.
After getting a certain way into the story, the perspective shifts between the two Lombaxes across different planets, letting Rivet become more familiar with Clank and Ratchet getting a new robot on the scene named Kit to open up and trust others a bit more.
Despite there only being nine planets in the game, one of the smallest amounts next to Into the Nexus, there is plenty of variety across all of them.
Quite a few planets are revisited as part of the story with new areas being unlocked upon return, either due to actions happening in the story or, in the case of the battle arena, new sets of challenges being unlocked – good for making sure players have a reason to return, bad for me because I love the battle arenas and want to do everything in one go.
The core of the Ratchet and Clank franchise are the weapons, with Rift Apart being no exception in producing phenomenal weapons with unique traits across all of them. Rosalia Rambles Ratchet tradition dictates I do a rule-of-three rundown on some of my favourite weapons, so that is what I am going to do.
The Topiary/Toxiary Sprinkler is your typical enemy disabling weapon present in the franchise, giving you a chance to switch to a more powerful weapon to deal unabashed damage, In this instance, it takes the form of a sprinkler that will turn any enemies (even big massive bosses) into decorative topiaries of themselves for a short while. A silly and entertaining take on a standard weapon class.
One of my favourite entirely new weapons is the Ricochet/Wreckochet, a weapon that fires a seeking projectile that will hit an enemy before bouncing off it, hanging in the air and allowing you to press the trigger to use the projectile to enable a follow-up attack. With fun sound effects and having uses in both crowds & against larger targets, it quickly found a place in my heart.
Finally, we have the Blackhole Storm/Blackhole Vortex, a rapid firing gatling gun that is unlocked fairly late into the story, but is incredibly worth it once picked up. Taking some time to spin up, it will unleash a torrent of miniature black holes, raining antimatter death upon your enemies… until it overheats, after which point it needs some time to cool down.
What is unique to note that due to this game being on PS5 originally, it does support DualSense controllers with plenty of unique vibration patterns across different weapons, and the majority of weapons having a system where half and full trigger pulls do different things.
As shown in my achievements image, it did not take me long to 100% this game, having finished the remaining achievements only an hour or so into my New Game+ save, but I consider that time fully worth it. There were no instances of me being disappointed by any planet, the setpieces were fantastic and the combat has evolved for the modern day with features such as a dodge move and the rift tethering mechanic.
I would like to end off my review with a tribute to Captain Qwark’s original voice actor, Jim Ward. The captain returns in this game however briefly at the start, being voiced by a new actor, with Jim Ward having retired due to a double whammy of a severe case of COVID-19 and developing Alzheimer’s Disease.
Mr Ward, thank you for being one of the most recognisable voices of my childhood. I hope you can enjoy retirement.
That calls it for today, thank you so much for reading the Redundancy Review. With a heatwave on the way in the UK, I am going to focus on trying to stay as cool as possible.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is available on PS5 and Steam.
Good morning doctors and nurses, welcome to Day 29 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
Today feels a lot better for me, yesterday I ended up nursing a massive headache that may or may not have been related to caffeine withdrawal but still persisted after having coffee, only going away once I had taken some paracetamol. It could entirely be stress-related as well at the prospect of starting my new job.
I have mixed feelings about going back into QA work so soon, on one hand it is something I know how to basically do in my sleep and my knack for finding bugs accidentally, so I feel happy to be working in something familiar so soon.
But on the other hand, I was actively looking forward to developing a new career in something away from the tech space, even if it would have taken a long time to reach some form of sustainability.
In a way that is why I took the contracting role. My intention is to save a lot of the income I make from that role to build my runway further than I already have, so once it concludes I can navigate myself back on to the path of writing as a career with extra stability.
Hopefully I will also be able to take a break after it is done because god why am I so tired lately, struggling to keep my eyes open right now. Feels weird to say when I am unemployed but the tiredness and sleepiness has been really getting to me lately, even when I am not really doing much in a day.
It will probably improve once I am back into my work routine, rather than just living as a drifter who makes her own schedule – as much as being a gaming NEET has had me catch up on a lot of games I had been meaning to play.
But as I gear back up into the new life of contracting, it would be awesome to take on contract writing roles. If you are reading this and want to hire me, consider getting in touch. I have experience working on training scripts, proposal presentations, and the massive variety of work hosted on this website. Infinitely adaptable, I can apply my expertise to any situation.
It is going to be a bit different of a food review today, as I am reviewing a sauce, but not just any sauce.
A takeaway inspired sauce from Hellmann’s.
Hellmann’s is my personal favourite brand of mayonnaise in the UK, having got me through a lot of different situations and forming one of my core life philosophies when it comes to food: never cheap out on sauces, learnt that the hard way as a student where I used to emaciate cheap mayonnaise with unreal amounts of garlic to try make it taste good.
The sauce they are specifically trying to mimic here is the KFC Supercharger Mayo sauce, a contender for the crown of best sauce from a takeaway right next to Papa John’s special garlic sauce.
So to compare, I set up a side-by-side taste test… not blind unfortunately but you get the idea.
We have Supercharger on the left, and Chilli Charger on the right. To start I can definitely tell them apart based on visuals, whilst Hellmann’s does a very good job of capturing that processed orange look the original has, there are specks of herbs and spices in the Supercharger that set it apart.
As for taste, Supercharger tastes like Supercharger, an incredibly creamy sauce with a good hit of spice. The creaminess likely comes from the fact that KFC mayonnaises are usually made with both eggs and buttermilk – a fact that plays to its advantage in enhancing the flavour at the downside making this not safe for those with dairy intolerances.
Hellmann’s version of the sauce tastes less creamy with around the same kick of spice, I can definitely tell the differences but there is enough similarity that if I were to try it on chicken strips or attempting to make my own version of the Zinger Stacker (my KFC main of choice) I feel it would be a perfect substitute. Unfortunately though the Hellmann’s version of the sauce also contains milk as an allergen due to the cream powder used, making this unsafe for daily intolerances.
The main perk I can see with the Hellmann’s version is accessibility and cost. At time of writing it is 50p to purchase a pot of Supercharger dip which is around 30ml of product, not including the price of awkwardness of buying a bunch of pots of dip. At Asda (not sponsored, just a fan), Hellmann’s Chilli Charger is currently £1.98 for a 250ml bottle, meaning that for the price of one bottle, you could only get 120ml of real Supercharger.
That does it for today, and a more in-depth slash energetic review than yesterday. Thank you for reading today, considering a heatwave is on the way in the UK I hope you can stay cool and hydrated in these coming days.
For more information on both Chilli Charger and other fine Hellmann’s products (not sponsored, just a fan), visit their website here: https://www.hellmanns.com/uk/home.html
Good morning clocks and watches, welcome to Day 28 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
Sitting here trying to think of the semantics of what doing this for a month is – technically I could say today is me having done it for a month since I have done it for four weeks, but my mind is thinking more on the side of Day 30 being the official month milestone as that lines up with my redundancy date.
Regardless, I have been at this consistently for a good length of time all the same, and even though it looks like things are about to change for me I want to keep up with this daily habit I find myself in.
There was a lot of doubt and weird feelings around taking this contract opportunity, specifically because I have been trying to style myself into something new, to move away from almost eight years of being a tech-focused person and shift my energy into being a creative type like I have always dreamed of.
But being a creative is a difficult career, and I want to prove I am in it for the long haul by keeping up my creative efforts even when working in a different sector. My ultimate driving force is still those words I heard so long ago:
“Don’t let it die in your head”.
I want to tell stories.
I want to share my voice.
I want to put something positive into this world.
Even if this whole endeavor turns out glory-free, I will be satisfied that I wrote it down at least, to keep a record.
But if you are reading this and want to help out my career, why not consider hiring me? Scripting, stories, and Redundancy Reviews on request, I want to create each day.
It is Tuesday, which means one thing: today is a Hololive review day!
Although, honestly… I am not feeling too great, just went out for a walk and some food which normally helps perk me up, but if anything I feel even foggier after doing so.
So instead, I am just going to share a Hololive talent covering possibly my favourite Vocaloid song of all time, Rolling Girl by wowaka – rest in peace dude.
And to make sure I have a thumbnail, I am going to include a meme I made about my ability to make memes.
Thank you for reading this shorter review. I am going to go lie down.
Good morning sharks and seahorses, welcome to Day 27 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
Writing this a lot later than I usually do due to a mix of calls and appointments this morning around different topics which I wanted to tackle before getting my thoughts in line to do the mental health check-in portion of the review.
I have been presented with an opportunity to do some contracting work which, whilst not entirely in my wheelhouse or interest, is in my area of expertise, that being Quality Assurance.
My main feelings around continuing QA work are what the title suggests, being the means that can help justify the way I want to live my life now. My ultimate goal is still wanting to be a writer for hire, telling my own stories whilst helping others to tell their own. If freelancing in tech can help enable that lifestyle, then it is something I should pursue…
…which I recognise goes against my entire discussion on my burnout a couple reviews back, but the benefit of this being a contracting role is that I would be able to back out if things became too much for me. Even if it was just for a short while, it would get me some additional experience both as a QA and getting more familiar with the freelancing way of life.
The Redundancy Review would continue even upon taking the contracting role – there is no stopping this train now, especially since the role would let me fund the “eating my way around Shrewsbury” reviews far easier, which are honestly some of my favourite pieces to write.
There is some part of me that wonders what it would be like to try position myself as a professional food critic, but the problem with that is I love food too much to want to try criticise it intensely – even the most subpar food I will still find things to love about, and in a way I have not forgotten my student days where things such as the “lasanwich” and the “chicken kyiv burger” brought me incredible amounts of comfort.
I strive to find the positives in everything, and unless something made me physically sick, I would want to try to express those positives.
Even as I begin to enter into contract work, I will keep myself available for writing work, which if you are reading this and want to hire me, please do! I am available for professional scripting, transcription, and reviews of all sorts, do not catch yourself putting inadequate AI-generated copy out there – invest in a burgeoning writer today!
Today’s review is another homeware/furnishing review, but one taking a very different form from a flatpack.
3M Command Hooks/Command Strips are one of the most useful pieces of kit as someone who rents the place they live rather than own, as like most renters, I am terrified of actually putting a hole in a wall that is not mine.
Command products are a godsend in that regard, with all different varieties being in different locations. I have used Small Clear Wire Hooks to build a makeshift tool rack over my hob, and the decorating clips allow me to hang fairy lights around easily, letting me live out my dream of being an e-girl through the aesthetic.
But today’s subject is a bit more heavy duty than those two, and is used in a very unique and novel way.
3M Command Large White Wire Hook has a weight capacity of 2.2kg, making it more geared around holding heavier objects with the suggestion on the packaging being a dustpan and brush, whilst also being able to go up to backpacks, bags, or cumbersome tools that are hard to store elsewhere.
So, what do I use them for?
Creating a makeshift armoury behind my bed and desk of course.
These hooks are the absolute ideal way to mount up Nerf guns without drilling any holes to make mounting posts. The main body of the hook is long enough to guide it through the sling points of more slimline blasters, meaning the second hook can be positioned to support another section or be put through another sling point to make a rock solid mount.
The application of the adhesive strip is incredibly straightforward, with the body of the hook itself being able to be slid off to remove the strip when needed. Each pack comes with two strips so the hook is able to be removed and reapplied elsewhere if they need to be repurposed.
My guns have been mounted for a period of over four months now and I have not had any issues – a relief given that three of them are mounted over where I sleep, meaning I have not had any rude awakenings. With how well the initial mountings went, I am definitely looking forward to investing in more and expanding my armoury wall.
That does it for today, thank you for reading the Redundancy Review today. These will continue until morale improves, so I look forward to continuing this journey with all of you.
The Command Hooks mentioned in this review and many other fine products are available at B&Q in the UK: 3M Command Hooks and Hardware at B&Q (not sponsored, just a fan)
Good morning dancers and jivers, welcome to Day 26 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
It is a beautifully quiet Sunday morning right now. The day started with rain outside which has now developed into it being cool and cloudy as I wait for an IKEA delivery to arrive, with not much planned beyond that.
Building on the theme of yesterday being the odd feeling of my redundancy feeling “liberating”, Sunday would always be tinged with sadness slash anxiety due to my burnout feelings – enjoying the day but dreading dragging myself back to my desk on Monday, an emotion that has been replaced with a similar but different one.
There is still some amount of dread I feel on a Monday, as I mentally gear myself up to go delving on LinkedIn again and look at job postings but in a way it is less oppressive than what my burnout felt like. In a way I have more freedom to structure my day around different periods of job searching and working on different bits of writing work.
But with freedom comes responsibility, with one of the main things I am definitely struggling with is discipline. I write these reviews every day but I find it hard to keep up with my mind flitting between different personal projects, wanting to tell all the stories at once without finishing any.
It is something I will improve on as time goes on, although for now I am going to continue to enjoy my sleepy Sunday.
For the weekdays though, I am still available for writing work and both money & getting experience on professional projects again are insanely good motivators.
Going to be a straightforward review today as well, talking about my favourite piece of IKEA furniture: the Kallax.
Whatever purpose you need storage space for, the Kallax can handle it. Easy to build, infinitely versatile, and available in a range of attractive designs, it can fit into any room and any style with ease.
My favourite feature of the Kallax is how many inserts are available for it, both from IKEA and independent sellers. On my one specifically I have these laser cut stands that are supposed to be used for books, but as you can see from the image, I use them to support a copious amount of plushies.
Board/card games are also ideal for the Kallax, with many standard sized boardgame boxes fitting perfectly into a Kallax square for a tidy and presentable solution.
I am not sponsored by IKEA in any way, shape, or form, but considering how much I shill for the Kallax in my everyday life, there would be no greater honour if the opportunity ever arose.
Short, sweet, and to the point. Thank you for reading today’s shorter review, I am going to go back to snoozing. Enjoy some relaxation yourself.
Good morning knights and squires, welcome to Day 25 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
A later start today, but it feels nice to be relaxed for the first time in a while. This whole experience I am going through puts me under varying amounts of stress day-to-day, so having an afternoon yesterday and a morning today where I do not feel that as hard as I usually do is an incredibly liberating feeling.
I do not think I have used that word enough in regards to some parts of this journey: “liberating”. It is a weird one to use considering how redundancy has completely upended my life, but it has also brought benefits to me.
There was no denying I was going through some degree of burnout in my old job. I was still delivering what was needed of me on the daily but I also struggled to get out of bed some days in the lead up to the end times – dragging myself to my desk and putting on my best face.
It was honestly the people that kept me going a lot of the days, I worked with extremely talented and personable people who made even the hardest times go by quicker. The culture, even with all of us working remotely, was what kept me in till the bitter end.
(god getting woken up at 3am has thrown me off today, struggling to keep my mind on track)
But now that I am out of work, there definitely is something positive from being away from the tech sphere and doing my own things. I have struggles but I also have runway, leading to me existing in this flip-flop of zen and panic, but ultimately letting my mind recover from the experiences I have been through.
Writing every day is helping with that too. Being able to sit down and express myself through the written word is a peaceful feeling even on the days where my brain does not want to co-operate with me, and I remain ever thankful for anyone who takes time out of their day to read my words.
The dream is still to be able to make some form of living off of writing, be it being hired as an in-house copywriter for a company or freelancing my way around, always finding something new to work on. Is this a lofty goal in the age of AI? Of course, but what I am building for myself is an identity of human creativity, what I aim my “brand” to be in a way.
If you are looking for someone to write something thoughtful and emotional, consider hiring me. This project is but a fraction of what I am capable of, I would love to prove my worth against a wide range of works.
Eating my way around Shrewsbury
Yup, that is right. Welcome back to another exciting edition of talking about somewhere to eat in Shrewsbury!
With my redundancy payments coming in, and after putting money into both bills and savings accounts, my partner and I resolved that we would go out for a proper meal at a restaurant. We tour cafes and small eateries pretty frequently, but it had been around two months since we had last gone “out out” as it were – for obvious reasons.
Considering I was going to pay, it was my choice as to where we would go, and I picked one of the best places for burgers in town: The Beefy Boys.
The Beefy Boys is a small-scale chain restaurant with only four locations across the UK: Hereford, Cheltenham, Bath, and of course, Shrewsbury. Very good going for a group of four friends who came together over a love of cooking, a wholesome start that reflects in the quality of their food today.
After we got seated by the extremely friendly staff, we got to work on deciding what we wanted. Beefy Boys is one of the few venues I have seen today that offer free refills on soft drinks, a very good offer considering the asking price of £4.25 with both myself and my partner getting three glasses worth out of it.
With food though we decided to be a little more indulgent. One of the main differences at Beefy Boys is that you can decide what kind of burger patty you want:
You can go for a standard smashed patty, which comes with two thin patties on the burger
You can go for a thicc patty, cooked pink in the centre
You can go “Oklahoma-style” smashed patty, which has onions pressed in during the cooking process
Or you can go for “Cali-Style”, which is a thick patty grilled in mustard – mimicking how the fast food chain In’n’Out do their “animal style” burgers
Everything beyond a smashed patty incurs an additional charge, but having the freedom to upgrade your burger however is a very nice touch on the menu.
For myself I got what is known as the Pizza Boy with smashed patties. This is a burger topped with pepperoni, marinara sauce, a big lump of breaded mozzarella, and served with a garlic and herb dip on the side. I am a lover of all things cheesy, and this hit the exact spot I was looking for when coming back to Beefy Boys.
My partner got the Bacon Boy with the thick patty and an egg added on top. Unsurprisingly, this burger contains a large amount of bacon, coming loaded with crispy bacon strips, bacon jam, and baconnaise. A solid choice for any porcine purveyors out there.
When it came to sides, we know from past experience to only order one portion of fries, as doubling up with the absolute majesty of these burgers leads to feeling extremely bloated… that said, an old special has now made a permanent home on the menu in the form of chicken kyiv fries – fries topped with chopped chicken strips, garlic mayonnaise, and garlic butter.
These are an extremely indulgent treat, but are oh so worth it. We finalised our sides with an addition I specifically wanted in the form of mac and cheese balls, which came with a little side of chipotle ketchup. These were crunchy, creamy, and absolutely divine when paired with the sauce, perhaps a little overkill considering everything else on the plate.
To finalise, we decided to get milkshakes as our dessert, which is where “indulgence” started to slowly eek into “overkill”. They were absolutely delicious, extremely thick and a very generous portion, but I had to stop at least twice during mine to contemplate what I had done.
Now, for the price breakdown:
Two refillable soft drinks: £4.25 each for a total of £8.50, where we both got three glasses each out of it
Pizza boy with smashed patties: £13.70
Bacon boy with thick patty and an egg: £16.15
Chicken kyiv fries: £12.50
Mac and cheese balls: £7.70
Biscoff milkshake: £8
Banana milkshake: £7
Total cost of meal: £73.55 8% service charge: £5.88
Total cost overall: £79.43
A very expensive meal overall, but hopefully the price breakdown shows the general impression of what you get for your money at Beefy Boys. Additionally, the service charge is discretionary, and you are able to remove it from the bill if you want.
But you should not. Not only because service staff definitely deserve the extra boost where possible, but also because every time we have gone to Beefy Boys the service has been immaculate. Staff are friendly, the food comes out promptly, and the overall atmosphere inside is fantastic.
It was a worthy date night out after two months of stress, and whilst the current situation prohibits doing it on the regular, I will definitely be returning to Beefy Boys.
Thank you for reading today, hopefully I have not made you too hungry – but if I have, I hope you can treat yourself to something indulgent today too. It is Saturday after all, and the week has been a long one.
Good morning snoozers and sleepers, welcome to Day 24 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
Being rejected by Poncle yesterday hurt.
A lot.
So much so it threw me off my mojo for basically the entire day once I had got the review out of the way in the morning. I know it is okay to have days like that, especially when I am still dealing with the emotional fallout of the whole catalyst for why I am writing today.
But it does not stop me feeling the hurt, and I am someone who feels emotions very intensely because of my estrogen treatments. I always got told by doctors in the leadup to starting that my “emotion range would open up” and “you might find it easier to cry”.
I was not anticipating how much both of those would happen – even three years past the start I still get caught by surprise on how much I can feel and how much I can cry.
Even before estrogen though, I have always been a bit of a crybaby, being able to cry very easily. Nowadays though it does not take much to set me off, sometimes I have even just looked at a picture of an axolotl and that is enough to make me want to cry a bit.
That said, I do not consider my emotions or my ease of crying a weakness by any stretch of the imagination. They might be vulnerabilities for me, but I can utilise them as a strength as well, usually within my writing work. In general I hope that is the vibe that comes across with the Redundancy Review thus far, weaponising my vulnerability in the wake of disaster to try make something positive come out of it.
And as much as I do feel doubt creeping in some days, I will always be here. Rain or shine, happy or sad, awake or asleep – I have my rhythm, and I have a job to do.
Promoted this website on my LinkedIn yesterday, as part of a general headline update which included a very professional way of advertising my anti-AI sentiment. On a platform dominated by AI content from GPT-speak copy to obviously incorrect images, promoting myself as a “human-focused creative” definitely makes me stand out a bit more in the opposite direction.
If you would like a healthy dose of human-focused creativity, I would love to work on your writing projects! Do not settle for the myth of AI-generated copy being “good enough”, whilst it can convey a message it does not convey any emotion, especially when you are trying to market something. Find a human who can get excited about your product and pay them to write about it! (bonus points if I am that human)
Speaking of getting excited about things, today’s review topic is one that has been considered long overdue by my partner, and a game I followed the development of for a long time before taking the plunge myself.
Plus, with the big announcement yesterday that Helldivers 2 is coming to Xbox Series platforms in August, now seems like a good time to talk about it – it will be admittedly hard to cover the heights this game has reached over the last year and a half, but I will try my best.
Helldivers 2 is a third-person shooter online cooperative shooter developed by Arrowhead Games released in 2024. The main objective of the game is to fight back against the three factions vying to destroy Super Earth:
The Terminid Swarm (standard sci-fi bugs)
The Socialist Automatons (standard sci-fi robots)
The Illusive Illuminate (standard sci-fi aliens)
The main way this fight is driven forward is through the regular deployment of “Major Orders” (MO), community-wide objectives that need to be completed or fulfilled within the time given, sometimes within a couple of days or over the span of a week. Players are free to engage with the MO or they can fight whichever faction they prefer.
I personally love the Major Order system as an example of live service done right, especially when Arrowhead have let players decide what new content they want by offering it as an incentive for doing the MO a certain way… even if it did result in it taking four MOs to unlock Anti-Tank Mines.
The gameplay loop is fairly straightforward, dive onto a planet.
With the coolest loading screen ever.
After which you are presented with your objective, which can range from collecting geological samples, destroying enemy supply lines, to the most important task of them all: raising the flag of Super Earth to bring democracy to all.
One of the most potent tools in the Helldiver arsenal are stratagems, powerful pieces of equipment that are activated by inputting the correct arrow code. These include but are not limited to:
Orbital barrages
Vehicles and mech suits
Jet fighters carrying ordnance
Defensive turrets and sentries
After completing your objective, it is time to go to the extraction point, with it taking some time for the shuttle to reach you – this is where shit will really hit the fan, especially on harder difficulties.
Enemies will lay siege to your extraction with relentless fury, calling in more reinforcements as time goes on, making you rely on all the stratagems at your disposal to get you out of there alive. These moments are where a lot of Helldivers get their most intense stories, and it is no surprise to see why.
Upon returning to your ship, you get your experience points and any currency collected which can be used to unlock new stratagems, upgrade your ship to access potent passive buffs, or spend on the “Warbond” system, a set of premium, non-expiring, battlepass-style collections of equipment and customisation options.
That said, Helldivers 2 does not mandate the spending of additional money on top of the price of access. The premium currency of Super Credits is able to be earned entirely in game through missions, so whilst it will be a bit grindy premium content is accessible without spending more money.
Additionally, upon reaching Level 10, you gain access to weapon customisation. A recently added feature as part of the game’s massive “Heart of Democracy” update that allows players to change how their favourite weapon handles via changing the scope, muzzle, or even the magazine size.
Whilst this is a very cool feature, there is one major issue currently in-game at time of writing: when going to customise your weapon’s pattern, it is entirely possible for the game to crash to desktop, which leads into one of my main criticisms of Helldivers 2 – it is a technical debt nightmare sometimes.
For context, the game is built on Autodesk Stingray, an engine that had support discontinued for it in 2018. This means that Helldivers 2 is working on very outdated tech, which can lead to a lot of bugs, crashes, and performance issues depending on your hardware. Quite often bugs that have been quashed in previous updates will reappear at random, sometimes with disastrous consequences.
It can be a reason not to buy the game, but personally coming from a QA background I recognise how hard it must be to keep a game of this scale working on a regular basis, so whilst I criticise, I can not in good conscious condemn the team knowing full well the patches I have suffered through.
And with everything the game has accomplished with real, permanent changes to its world as part of the ongoing storyline, I am more than happy to accept some game-breaking bugs along the way.
I said I wanted to talk about something that excites me, and nearly two whole pages of content before adding in images is definitely that. Thank you for reading today. I hope you can have a relaxing weekend wherever you are. Take it easy, it has been a long week for some and you deserve some time to unplug.
Helldivers 2 is currently available on PS5 and Steam, with it coming to Xbox Series platforms August 26th.
Good morning berries and cherries, welcome to Day 23 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
It took a while, but today I finally got some closure on my application to Poncle from weeks back to be a QA engineer. For all the heart and soul that was put into my application, it has ended in rejection.
This hurts more than I anticipated – especially in the wake of my QA declaration yesterday.
Something I would like to emphasise is how difficult it is to maintain self-esteem in the wake of redundancy. The initial blow of being made redundant, even when it is through no fault of your own, does a massive amount of damage to your faith in your abilities. This gets worse when you try to pick up the pieces and get applications sent off, wondering if this time it will be enough.
Committing to Rambles is honestly the main thing keeping me going right now, even when things hurt like today. I committed to do an article a day and I am going to stick to that commitment no matter how the world makes me feel.
In all honesty my mood has been foul the last couple days, being really irritable about the smallest things and feeling reluctant to be sociable. I feel better when I actually push myself out there, but I am falling into the trap of comfort as well, preferring to close myself off to avoid any other pain.
On the plus side, you would not see an AI having this kind of vulnerability – yes I am taking a dig at AI out of pettiness in my current mood, it fits the vibe of today.
If you want writing with soul, lived experience, and a unique voice in today’s crowd, hire me. I am gaining experience every day, and I would love to work on your projects.
Building on the theme of vulnerability, today’s review is going to be one of the few poisons I allow myself to imbibe on a very infrequent basis.
Relentless is a brand of energy drink in the UK, carrying a wide variety of fruity flavours such as Passion Punch, Apple & Kiwi, and Watermelon.
None of those flavours matter here today, as the only one I can stomach drinking is the originator of the brand, now titled “Origin”. I have had a difficult relationship with energy drinks in the past, developing an outright addiction partway through my degree which compounded with other issues at the time to make me a not very pleasant person.
I strived to make myself “clean” in 2021 as part of a general recovery plan, but old habits die hard, and Relentless Origin is now the only energy drink of its ilk that I can enjoy drinking.
It is on the cheaper end of 500ml cans, especially when compared to Red Bull or Monster, with the price-marked packaging variants usually being around £1 each, and a four pack generally retailing for £3.50 for a pack of four.
One thing I always struggle to communicate with energy drinks is what they specifically taste like. I can convey the general idea of drinking a delicious form of battery acid, but nailing down details is difficult.
The main detail I can point out with Relentless, at least for me, is its distinct lack of an aftertaste compared to other leading brands – the primary reason as to why I can still drink it. Not often of course, I keep myself in check by limiting my intake and making alternative picks in the wake of having one, but some days just call for that little hit of chemicals once more.
That will be all for today, I am going to relax now. Thank you for reading this slightly shorter Redundancy Review with a bit more of a straightforward delivery than usual, I hope you have a good day wherever you are and can also find the time to relax.
Good morning leviathans and wyverns, welcome to Day 22 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
I have my own domain now!
No longer carrying the “.wordpress” part, I have a simple .com domain that will look a lot more professional on my CV and be a lot easier to say to people who might want to look up my work.
It is part of a greater upgrade plan I am looking at to take my work to the next level, with the next steps including getting a professional logo for the site and looking at upgrading my phone to make any photography I need to do look even better…
…and considering I smashed the screen up a while back along with the battery being on its way out, it makes practical sense as well.
This is being enabled by the fact I have got almost all of the money I am entitled to out of my redundancy, the only thing I am missing now is my lack of notice pay which I hope to resolve today after my Jobcentre meeting.
Which, yeah, is not something I am looking forward to today. I have a very dim outlook on the unemployment system in the UK, seeing it as a necessary evil for myself currently but having little to no optimism in how they can help me beyond monetary assistance.
I will be receptive to their input and if they can find me a holdover job that holds some relevance to my areas of interest I will be thankful, but having been through the system once before and having those close to me go through it multiple times my confidence in what they can do for me is low.
To be frank, there is a little bit of arrogance in my outlook. The Jobcentre is primarily focused on getting those who have been out of work for a while into a job with a secondary focus on helping people acquire basic skills that they might have missed out on due to life circumstances – right now I fall into neither category.
I have a plan in mind, I know what steps I need to take, and I really do not need a digital skills course that teaches me how to open Microsoft Word when I have been working at the apex of a heavily specialised technological industry for the last three years.
A little bit of frustration this morning, but getting it out every so often feels good.
In honour of the Jobcentre meeting though, I am going to do a variation on my call to action today. Whilst I am looking to start getting into paid writing work, it is more of a desire to pivot than where my career specialty actually lies. So what have I done every day since 2021?
I break things.
For the last four years, I have been working as a Quality Assurance Engineer/Analyst/Specialist, whatever you want to call me the core foundation of my career has been the ability to find bugs in all sorts of software projects – I am even credited on two EA Sports games (F1 2021 and F1 22).
Finding bugs is not just a career for me, it is a way of life. Even when playing games on my own time I am able to find bugs as easy as I breathe, my brain switching into QA mode once I do and seeing if I can replicate it.
I am good at what I do, and I know it. Any software project I get my hands on will be tested thoroughly with a can-do attitude and a tenacity to see it through right to the end.
With that done, it is time to review something from a game today, but considering it is a very recent addition, I will put a spoiler warning.
If you have not played Monster Hunter Wilds Title Update 2 content, please click away now. If you do click away now, thank you for reading today and I hope you have a great day!
With that done, I can get into it, and I am excited because I love Monster Hunter.
I really like Monster Hunter.
I really like Monster Hunter.
From being a complete newbie to the franchise back in 2022 to becoming way too obsessed today, Monster Hunter has wormed its way into my heart for its combat system, ecology design, and “fashion hunting”, the term for making layered armour sets out of different monster parts.
And with Wilds Title Update 2, a fan favourite monster finally returns to the franchise properly.
Lagiacrus was first introduced in Monster Hunter Tri as the flagship monster, releasing in 2009, with their inclusion in Wilds being their first representation in almost a decade, leading to many experienced fans being excited for their return.
For me though, I had no prior attachment to Lagiacrus but I was still excited to fight them for the first time, especially with the inclusion of a form of underwater combat as part of their fight mechanics.
Screenshot taken from the Title Update Trailer – I had taken footage but it seems to have corrupted
Underwater combat was a headline mechanic back in Monster Hunter Tri, being essential to Lagiacrus’s fight back in that game. Whilst the dev team for Wilds did not fully include a full combat system underwater, they did incorporate it into this new iteration.
After Lagiacrus retreats to its nest, it will dive underwater, giving hunters the opportunity to follow. During this fight you will need to use slinger ammo and collapsible underwater structures to stagger Lagiacrus to open a window to attack with your weapons, finalising with a cinematic finishing move once enough damage is done.
The introduction mission to Lagiacrus was extremely fun, not only serving to teach these mechanics to players, but also elaborating on one of the other characters in the Forbidden Lands with very thoughtful writing.
However, that is only one half of Lagiacrus being introduced, as after completing that mission they are now able to spawn in the world regularly, including being able to appear as a “Tempered” variant with stronger attacks and more health.
Tempered Lagiacrus is fucking terrifying.
Myself and my partner only fought a three-star version, supposedly on the weaker end of the scale.
It took us twenty minutes of consistent attacks and effort – longer than some base game tempered monsters, which included my partner fainting twice from the relentless onslaught of attacks.
Which, y’know, people had been asking for more challenge in the game.
And to get a non-spoilery thumbnail for the article, have one of my favourite fashion hunter sets from Wilds.
That does it for today, and that is possibly the most recent topic I have reviewed yet. Thank you for reading all the way if you did, I hope you have a relaxing day whatever you do.
Monster Hunter Wilds is available on Xbox Series, PS5, and PC.
Rosalia Rambles 