Showing posts with label dog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dog. Show all posts

May 05, 2026

Copycat video game review (PS5)

Copycat (affiliate link) is a sad little game about terrible people who abandon their cats. It made me hate people even more than I already did. If you can't cope with people neglecting animals, don't play this game.

 

Copycat game


I played Copycat on my late cat Tabitha's birthday, so I chose to play as a black and white cat in memory of her. There are six different cats to choose from.  

 


 

Copycat game story

Olive is an old, sickly woman, freshly out of hospital. Her cat Dawn is missing. So in her wisdom she decides to adopt a similar looking cat from a shelter, and names also her Dawn. 

 


 

So what happens to the copycat when the original cat returns home? 

If you adopt a cat from a shelter you can't just abandon it if your previous, missing cat comes back home.  

Listen, lady. If you are old and sick you can't take a pet. Unless you have a system with someone to check every day that you are still alive. Otherwise there's a risk that you'll die, and because of that your beloved pet dies of starvation. Unless they eat your corpse of course.

 


 

The lesson of this game is that people who don't like cats are also murderers.


Copycat endings 

Which ending would you choose? Living as a stray cat, or go back to the people who have abused you? Is there a happy ending to this game? You can view Copycat's both endings here.

 


 

Copycat game: How long to beat?

My first playthrough lasted for 3 hours, so it's a short game. Copycat was made by a small Australian studio of only two people. 

 



 

Copycat gameplay: Full game

 

 

January 21, 2026

As Dusk Falls: Can the dog die?

As Dusk Falls tells a story of a crime gone wrong, and about a family that gets caught in the middle of the unfortunate mayhem. 

The family has a dog named Zeus.  

 



 

Early on you have to try to calm the dog, while criminals threaten you.  

 


 

The good news is that no matter which option you choose, the dog can not die. In fact the dog is still alive at the game's end, 14 years later. Quite long life for a dog?

 


There's also another dog in the game if you play it a certain way as Jay...

 

Cat in As Dusk Falls 

I was really surprised when in the 5th episode of the game a cat made an appearance.
 
 

 

Paul has a cat named Marlon, living with him in his trailer. 

 

 



 

If Paul chooses to escape with Sharon, he does take the cat with them. So luckily no cat is left behind!

 

 


 

 

As Dusk Falls (affiliate link) is currently free to play on Playstation Plus Extra.

 

January 15, 2026

Hello Kitty Island Adventure: Beginner's Guide

Hello Kitty Island Adventure (affliate link) is a life simulation game which takes place on a vacation island inhabited by Sanrio characters. The game became available for PS5 in August 2025, and I loaned it from the library.

 


I didn't know any other of Sanrio characters besides Hello Kitty prior to playing this game. But now I got to know them and fell in love with them, especially Cinnamoroll and Keroppi.

 


 

This game is designed to be played every day for a very long time, and not much at a time. It is limited how much you can advance in the game daily. Hello Kitty Island Adventure isn't a sprint, it's a marathon. You need patience to play this. 

 


 

Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a game aimed for children. At first I thought that there's isn't much to do, but I was wrong. It is a long game, it can take a year to play through. 

 


 

Tips and tricks 

In this blog post I have gathered some things I wish I knew when I started playing this game.

All the story progression revolves around advancing friendships, and that is done by giving gifts. By default you can gift a character three times a day. It is essential to give everyone the best possible gift.

 



Hello Kitty Island Adventure Gift Guide

To get the most out of the game the progress in friendships is crucial. So I strongly recommend you to check out these gift guides. 

Hello Kitty Island Adventure gift guide

3 heart gift guide in Google Doc 

 


 

Hello Kitty Island Adventure Companion Guide

Once unlocked, keep a companion friend with you at all times, they will help you with their abilities.

When you give gifts keep Hello Kitty as your companion to gain extra friendship progress. Also keep her as your companion when you are making any food items to get extra ones.

When you have made best friend status with someone and gift them, keep Miss Melody with you to get extra items. Which characters' items you still need even after that? In my experience at least Chococat's and Kuromi's. When repairing cabins Miss Melody reduces the cost of strawberry crates, but only when opening new cabins. 

Keep Chococat with you when you are crafting items to get extra ones. 

Keep Keroppi as a companion when you are catching critters to slow them down and to make them less spooked. 

Pochacco makes you move faster, so he makes collecting items take less time.

And late game, Big Challenge's vacuum ability makes looting items a lot easier. 

 


 

Hello Kitty Island Adventure Visitor Cabins

You should start decorating visitors cabins as soon as you can. I waited too long before I realized I should be doing that. It can be confusing which items every visitor requires in their cabin. Once again wiki is your best friend (pun intended).

How to put clothes on visitor cabins? I had problems with that. First you have to craft a mannequin and place that in the cabin. Then you can put clothing items on the mannequin. 

 


 

Hello Kitty Island Adventure Critters 

Keroppi became my favorite character, but I hated his Best friend quest. A supposed critter friend wants to make furniture out of them?! How cruel and unethical, and makes zero sense. Of course critters want to spend an eternity suffering as furniture.

 


 

How to get iron in Hello Kitty

At one point in the game I absolutely ran out of iron. The best way to grind iron is Gem match mini game. It's located right next to Dance hall in Gemstone town. When you match a pair you might get iron. I got 90 iron in minutes.

 


 

South Park vs. Hello Kitty

In 2006 a South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft" featured a game named Hello Kitty Island Adventure. At that time that game did not exist. In 2023 the game became a reality. Choosing this name for their game earned a lot of points from South Park fans for Sanrio.

 

Hello Kitty South Park

 

Butters Hello Kitty


 

I must admit that as an adult I enjoyed Disney Dreamlight Valley more than adventures on Hello Kitty's vacation island.  

 

January 06, 2026

Animals in Red Dead Redemption

In honor of the first Red Dead Redemption coming to PS5 it's free to play on Playstation Plus Extra.

John Marston is a wannabe farmer, who has done some terrible things in his past (see Red Dead Redemption 2), while being a member of Dutch's gang of outlaws. Now his past has caught him, and he's forced to track down some old buddies. And of course to kill lots of people in the process. And unfortunately innocent animals too, especially horses and cows.

 


 

This game is not suitable for animal lovers. Right at the start of the game you have to kill some bunnies. And this theme goes on through the game.

In fact many of the trophies/achievements require killing animals. Kill one of each animal type, kill all the buffalos until they go extinct, kill 18 bears and so on. This was my second playthrough of the game, and this time I refused to do any of that...

 


 

Not to mention the still present trophy which requires killing a woman by placing her on the train tracks... But don't worry, this woman was evil! (as are all the scantily clad women in this game, who are asking for help on the roadside, so beware of them!)

 


 

Horses 

There are lot of animals in Red Dead Redemption. There are almost no cars, so riding a horse to everywhere is a must. It gets really annoying really fast when you have to ride to same locations over and over. Thumb hurts from pressing X. And when you die you don't only have to do the mission again. You have to ride to its location again. Long, long ways.

 

 

Your horse can die from the bullets of your enemies, and unlike in Red Dead Redemption 2, there is no horse reviver. When the horse dies, it's gone forever, with no way to save it. In terms of gameplay this means nothing, because you can whistle for another horse straightaway.

 


 

And unlike in RDR2, you can't take care of your horse either. No grooming, no feeding, no patting. No nothing!

 

Cows 

There are some missions about herding cows. But in two of them you have to try to stop them from committing suicide. If you fail, they will jump down from a cliff or run in front of a train. So if you don't want to see animals die, don't play this game.

 


 


 

Dogs 

You can do some nightwatch missions with dogs in three different towns. 

 


And then there's the Marston family dog, Rufus, who helps you in some missions.

 

 

Is Rufus a good boy? Probably, but John Marston surely isn't.

 


 

 

Chicken 

There are chicken on farms. It's easy to run them over with your horse, so be careful. Sometimes dogs kill them... I was playing the horseshoe minigame, and when I finished it I found two dead chickens...

 


 

 

Water Allergy Is Real 

Be afraid of water. Be very, very afraid of water. John Marston is infamously allergic to water. If he even touches water he will instantly die. 

One time I was almost done with a gang hideout, all enemies were dead but I still needed to burn a couple of boats. I looted a box on a pier, and fell into water. Mission fail, and I spawned in a town long away. I was a bit pissed... 

Luckily Jack Marston doesn't suffer from the same problem.

 


 

 

Bugs 

Red Dead Redemption on PS5 is still a buggy game, as these pictures prove:

 




 

 

And taking the coach ride can lead to some dangerous driving...

  

Red Dead Redemption gameplay (PS5)

 

 



 

March 28, 2025

The animals of Far Cry: New Dawn

Far Cry: New Dawn (affiliate link) is a first-person shooter game which continues the story of Far Cry 5. It takes place in Hope County just like the previous title. The lenght of the game is shorter than many others in the series. The release date was February 15, 2019.

 



In general I don't like first person shooters, I never play them alone. But like many other similar games, Far Cry: New Dawn is a lot of fun with a partner in online co-op. There is no local co-op nor split screen option.

 

Far Cry: New Dawn Character Customization

 

You can choose the gender of your playable character, and the customization options even allow you to put a beard on a female, which is always a plus. For some reason my co-op partner made his character look like Keanu Reeves.

 


There are many kind of animals in this game, such as cougars and chickens. And there's even a horrible trophy called Master Skinner, where you have to kill and skin every type of animal this game has to offer, including cows. I still hate myself for doing that.

 




The dogs of Far Cry: New Dawn

 

There are lot of dogs in the game, and yes you can pet them, as you can see in the image below.

 


 

There's even a side mission called Man Eat Dog World, where you'll have to pet your future gun for hire dog Timber, and break out some imprisoned dogs. Prison Break!


 

There's a trophy called Sidecar Sidekick involving Timber, where you have to ride with him for 5 minutes. It doesn't need to be consecutive minutes, just 5 minutes in total. But what I hate about first person shooters is that you can't really see or enjoy the view of a dog in the passenger seat.

 


 

Boars?? 


There's a side mission called To Love a Boar, where you'll have to save a boar named Horatio. After this mission he will be available as a gun for hire. Once you pet the boar you'll unlock the trophy Save your bacon. We did this just in time for Christmas Eve. And the joke is that in my country we eat pork at Christmas... 




Far Cry New Dawn: Fly, You Fools! Trophy Guide

 

You first need to obtain the wingless plane, which you get after rescuing Nick Rye. After that you can access the plane from boathouses. Besides the plane you need dynamite. Throw dynamite in front of the plane and drive over it. You may need to try this a few times. To be honest it's easier to do if you have a co-op partner.

 


Far Cry New Dawn: Ethanol Truck

 

Here's a cautionary video how flammable ethanol can be.

 



 

 

And if you are looking for a guide for cattle location in Far Cry: New Dawn, you can click the link.