I was also pleasantly surprised with video and audio quality, really great range. Here's a clip of Eisbrecher performing their FAKK hit song, should give you an idea how awesome this show was.

Another look at CNPP from our upcoming S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope DLC 👀

A more in-depth look at S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope - www.stalker2.com/news/zone_be... It's going to be a massive expansion with dozens of hours of gameplay where you'll visit new places and iconic locations from original trilogy. And just like the main game, DLC will have a branching narrative!

Our producer gifted this awesome poster to everyone involved in making content updates for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. X-18 lab is one of my favorite locations in Shadows of Chernobyl, so working on its modern version was a lot of fun to me. Definitely going to get it framed and put it on the wall eventually!

So, I've used video editing tools again for the first time in years. It's not related to gaming, just a simple reel with my favorite 5 new albums of the past month. I've also changed my Instagram handle and it made every old link invalid, so I here's the new link - www.instagram.com/pcgi_ales/

In the wake of recent news, decided to finally pull the plug and get used Steam Deck OLED 512gb. I planned to wait for Steam Deck 2, but considering the global situation, I feel it would take a while before we hear about it again. I doubt I'll have time to actively play on it, but I love it so far!

My copy of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 almanac has finally arrived! And it features a few of my in-game renders with some of the locations I worked on. One of the perks of being in the dev team is that I got this book and 5 cards for free lol. I won't hunt for a complete card collection tho, too much trouble.

Unfortunately, after playing it for 2 weeks, I can't praise the game itself. It's still a gacha with typical downsides. It's also overly ambitions game, overloaded with underbaked mechanics and terrible pretentious writing. Exploring the map is fun, but I don't see myself sticking with it for long.

It's crazy to see such advanced visuals and weather system in a free game. It really feels like a massive raytracing tech-demo, shame there's no built-in benchmark. I had doubts about mixing hyper-realistic urban environment with stylized characters, but the art direction in this game is stellar.

I usually don't play those "AAA" gacha games, but I couldn't ignore Neverness to Everness (what a dumb name) because it's a rare UE5 urban open-world game with path tracing support. I was curious to see how they've managed to pull it off, and damn - this game is an impressive technical achievement.

Lastly, I really liked that shot with guitarist of Enemy Inside, so I wanted to share it separately. The rest of the photos and clips from this gig can be found on my Instagram - www.instagram.com/inquisitoral...

The crowd was wild, I really enjoyed the vibe of this gig. Smash Into Pieces also put a lot of effort into the stage and performance. I've been following them since their "indie" days, and now they do sold-out headline tours across EU.

It's been a really busy month, so I barely have time to share anything except for my late photos from yet another music gig. This set is from Smash Into Pieces tour with Dark Divine and Enemy Inside, and it was an awesome show!

A small snippet of the overall vibe, from INTENT:OUTTAKE performance. The crowd was great, really good show overall. Uploaded the rest of photos and clips from this event on my Instagram - www.instagram.com/inquisitoral...

I usually don't celebrate my birthday, but by coincidence there was an industrial music gig in Zwickau, so it was a nice excuse to go to Germany last weekend. I doubt anyone here knows these bands, but it was a show with Pseudokrupp Project, INTENT:OUTTAKE, and Grendel. And it was a lot of fun!

New free content update for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is available now! It introduces a new questline to explore the sealed part of X-18 Lab, and I was tasked to do lighting for such an iconic location. Read the full announcement below, a lot more is coming this summer! store.steampowered.com/news/app/164...

Here's the clip of Mesh performing one of their biggest hits, Born to Lie. As usual, I've shared a few more videos and photos on my Instagram - www.instagram.com/inquisitoral...

This week I had a great pleasure to be at live performance of legendary British synthpop band Mesh. It was an amazing show, which solidified my opinion that their new album is awesome. Excellent crowd and the vibe, guest performance of Mari Kattman was also great! #synthpop #industrialmusic

Looks familiar 👀

A few words about Epica - I was NOT prepared for how impressive their show would be. The stage set and sound quality were phenomenal, definitely one of those bands you need to experience live. Can't say I'm a hardcore fan of their music, but this show made me rediscovered some of their songs.

Although I'm kinda disappointed that Amaranthe didn't play Outer Dimensions (which was sort of expected, considering the tour name lol), the set list was almost perfect. It was an unforgettable show, amazing energy and vibe! More clips and photos on my Instagram - www.instagram.com/inquisitoral...

I was on short vacation and had a chance to be at Amaranthe/Epica show as part of their Arcane Dimensions Tour. I'm a huge fan of Amaranthe since their very first album, so it was great to finally experience their music live! Charlotte Wessels also played as warm-up act and did well too.

www.ign.com/articles/tim...

Oh yes, the magic "Make it look good" button that destroys all art direction and adds tasteless AI filter with cranked up contrast and fake rim-light over every character is EXACTLY what everyone asked for.

Lastly, a few photos from my 2-days exploration of Dresden! Never been in this city before, so I was impressed with how many of historical buildings they've restored. In case you are interested, I've uploaded a few more photos from this trip on my Instagram - www.instagram.com/inquisitoral...

Here's a clip of performance of headliners of this show, Swedish futurepop pioneers Covenant. Sadly, I accidentally botched audio while recording it on my phone. Definitely going to look into options to improve the quality next time.

Last weekend I was at Dresden for another industrial music gig, this time with 4 bands - Covenant, Leæther Strip, KaS Product, and Absurd Minds. Well, KaS Product actually playing punk/coldwave and were last-minute replacement for another band. But I still enjoyed this show a lot! #industrialmusic

Finally continued my playthrough of Caravan Sandwitch - a charming open-world indie game that I discovered on one of the past Steam Fests. It's a prime example of the right use of UE5 - the art-direction in this game is absolutely stellar. There are some flaws, but I'm enjoying it a lot so far.

While Last.fm understands when the year actually ends, I find their 2025 breakdown very lackluster - had to fetch my top 20 of albums and songs manually! No yearly playlist either, so I'm sharing the one from Spotify, even though it's missing over a month of data - open.spotify.com/playlist/37i...

As for the game itself, it's a timeless masterpiece I can't recommend enough. To this day, I still consider it the best bullet hell ever made. I strongly suggest switching to Legacy mode before playing tho - updated graphics are nice, but for some reason Enhanced mode completely nerfed sound effects