CodexArcanum

CodexArcanum, 6 dni temu

…wordpress.com/…/critical-perspectives-on-waluigi…

I, We, Waluigi: a Post-Modern analysis of Waluigi by Franck Ribery

Waluigi is the ultimate example of the individual shaped by the signifier. Waluigi is a man seen only in mirror images; lost in a hall of mirrors he is a reflection of a reflection of a reflection. You start with Mario – the wholesome all Italian plumbing superman, you reflect him to create Luigi – the same thing but slightly less. You invert Mario to create Wario – Mario turned septic and libertarian – then you reflect the inversion in the reflection: you create a being who can only exist in reference to others. Waluigi is the true nowhere man, without the other characters he reflects, inverts and parodies he has no reason to exist. Waluigi’s identity only comes from what and who he isn’t – without a wider frame of reference he is nothing. He is not his own man. In a world where our identities are shaped by our warped relationships to brands and commerce we are all Waluigi.

There is apparently a sequel post now as well.

CodexArcanum, 5 dni temu

I figured you might have read it, as your comment had evoked it for me.

I really like the reading of Waluigi as a kind of perfect symbol for our post-modern times. I don’t think the article goes quite far enough. Mario is already a simulacra: a stereotype that doesn’t really exist, certainly not anymore and never really did. So Waluigi is the reflection of an inverse of a simulation without a base reality.

It’s very relatable, as you say, an apt metaphor for how our cultures treat the common person. Maybe the right Waluigi game isn’t one that fleshes him out and brings him closer to the audience. Maybe something like Krusty’s Fun House or Lemmings: burning through legions of Waluigis (1up mushroom clones? robots? one person somehow split into a multitude?) to accomplish trivial goals for Wario, the stand-in for the corporate overlords?

CodexArcanum, 20 dni temu

I was trying to think on the history of this feature, since i wouldn’t necessarily count something like AvP’s heatvision mode. That’s meant to simulate a real thing, even if it works a bit gamey, by highlighting active objects.

Assassin’s Creed is the game that, for me, codified the mechanic into it’s current form. Hawk Vision or whatever they called it specifically highlighted game objects. I think they even mention that the animus machine is projecting that view to help Desmond see the world how his ancestors would have understood it.

But… I’m going to call the origin as being way farther back. In flight sims, your targeting hud can highlight enemies and targets by drawing little boxes around them. That is the very first instance I can think of where a game highlighted objects of interest for the player’s benefit. Most flight sims (or adjacent genres like mech sims) would also label the box with the name of the thing, sometimes with health, ammo, weapon, or weakpoint indicators as well.

CodexArcanum, 21 dni temu

Most people have the media literacy of cabbage and wouldn’t know a good story if it slapped them in the face with a huge pair of anime tits.

I’m light-years past caring what anons have to say about anything culture related.

CodexArcanum, 26 dni temu

Neon White was my suggestion as well. Ultrakill is fun but is going for a more Devil May Cry style game where score and style matter significantly.

Neon White i found a little confusing at first until I got the feel of it. Its a movement puzzle game, with some shooting. Precision and repetition are key to learning the levels and beating them quickly, and once you get into its groove, time flies by. For being a time-challenge game, I find it surprisingly relaxing and forgiving.

CodexArcanum, 2 miesiące temu

I’ll controversially say that I really love the Steam controller. Not the steam deck (which is honestly my number 1 if we’re including handhelds) but the original controller intended for use with the steam link device.

It really just needs a right analog stick and it would be great. The lack of one takes it from 10/10 to like a 7/10. It’s so good otherwise, great weight and size, good design. Sensible layout and the big track pads work really well! It was clearly a prototype for how the Deck layout ended up, though I actually like the controller’s big circular pads more than the decks little square ones.

CodexArcanum, 2 miesiące temu

Man that is the saddest thing. I really loved that series, sounds like it’s cooked.

CodexArcanum, 2 miesiące temu

Eh, I might buy it on sale since I already have the other Castlevania collections on Switch. They’re convenient to play and I liked the portable games quite a bit. Ecclesia is probably my favorite in the series!

But yeah, also, emulating on Steamdeck would probably be better, but more work to set up and hunt down ROMs.

Speaking of Ecclasia, why did the DS have such great entries in several series? Days of Ruin is also my favorite Advance Wars game, and I feel like both were later games, darker in tone than previous, with actually good use of the touchscreen.

CodexArcanum, 2 miesiące temu

I started a replay of Legend of Mana a while back. I love that game so much, but I haven’t been keeping up with the new releases. I know they did a big remake of SD3 not too long ago, and now a big new game! Anyone playing it?personal thoughts?

CodexArcanum, 2 miesiące temu

His daughter is the SteamDeck, only loaded with indie games and more emulators.

CodexArcanum, 2 miesiące temu (edited 2 miesiące temu)

And yet the Kex engine still doesn’t offer QoL improvements like multiple quick saves, auto saves, and control configuration is very limited, especially for mods/games that offer extra controls like jumping or inventories. No free mouse look or free aim.

Cross multi-player is neat but it was running kind of janky when I tried it. There’s also a pretty severe bug that enemies forget what state they were in after you load a save (they default back to idle). I don’t think that was an original bug, other ports (and pretty sure this one prior to this update) don’t have that bug.

I get that Doom at this point is more community platform than game, but other ports make clearer their intent at either upgrades-and-options (gzdoom) or attempting to stick close to the original (chocolate, eternity). I don’t think the Kex port makes clear it’s position on this. Controller support, cross-multiplayer, and some graphical options (like the weapon icons) make it seem like a QoL port but then things like no freelook make it seem like it wants to also be traditional.

Edit:

I feel like I’ve only talked about the engine a few times now. The new episode, Legacy of Rust, is excellent and a worthwhile addition to the core game. New enemies slot in well, new weapons are fun, and mainly the levels are just gorgeous and extremely hard. I muddled through episode 1 on UV but episode 2 stomped my face in right out of the gate. They weren’t playing on this one. Lots of nice touches too like brand new inter-mission screens, some new and expanded texture work, and the architecture is just really stunning. Some of meanest archvile placement since Plutonia as well. I really can’t recommend the new missions enough, though I might see if they’ll run in GZD, haha.

CodexArcanum, 3 miesiące temu

It never bothered me in Source games, but I don’t really care for it as a mechanic. Specifically in Half-Life, I don’t like how it overlaps with long jumping either. (Jump then crouch to crouch jump, crouch then jump to long jump.)

But I wouldn’t want it in other games because manteling is a superior mechanic. Mantelling is usually when you can hold down the jump key close to a ledge to grab it and pull yourself up, rather than jumping. In most games that have it, mantelling into a smaller space (a vent or pjpe) auto-crouches as you enter.

It allows for making longer jumps, exciting last moment saves, pulling yourself up into small spaces, simpler climbing mechanics, and more. It’s just a better, more intuitive mechanic that replaces long jumps and crouch jumps and requires no extra key presses.

CodexArcanum, 3 miesiące temu

The project lead, Eniko, was one of my first follows on Mastodon and still one of my favorite people to see post! Been looking forward to this release for a while!

CodexArcanum, 3 miesiące temu

It’s a ridiculous metric anyway. There are dozens of ancient MMOS that still manage to crawl along because a few hundred subscribers is enough to fund one or two developers in maintenance mode effectively forever. See also indie studios like Spiderweb Software who’ve been sustainably selling games to their fans for decades. See also indie roguelike devs who manage to make their one game a job by having a patreon and a few hundred fans. See also retrogaming. See also the boomer shooter renaissance.

Games on the whole have never been less dead, unless their studio intentionally smothers them by shutting down servers and locking off access.

CodexArcanum, 3 miesiące temu

So soft and squish!

CodexArcanum, 4 miesiące temu

I’ve been following an indie dev working on a Mario-3-ish-clone and nothing excites me more than that it seems like they brought Kuribos boot back. Why is that stupid fucking boot power up from one level in SMB3 still so beloved? I don’t know, but I feel it.

CodexArcanum, 5 miesięcy temu

Well friend, if you don’t know about these channels, I think you’ll find them up your alley!

Joseph Anderson - looong form analysis youtube.com/

Noah Caldwell-Gervais - even longer form! youtube.com/

Civvie-11 - funny boomer shooter man youtube.com/

Grim Beard - shout-outs to the goth gamer nation youtube.com/

If you like long-plays or commented play, I really enjoy Klatremus playing Thief in the “Supreme ghost” style youtube.com/

CodexArcanum, 6 miesięcy temu

When i was browsing the Gemini web one time, I ran across someone who had uploaded the whole archive to Gopher! I love the idea of real cyber punks keeping these precious old text files alive in the backwater sub-webs.

CodexArcanum, 8 miesięcy temu

C A N N I B A L

S T A R

M E T A L P L A N E T

S C A R S

sick as frick guitar solo

CodexArcanum, 8 miesięcy temu

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/2a2bdbac-a3f6-4902-a4c9-6edafd83b9b5.jpeg

Our young minds could barely handle those dozens of terrifying polygons!

CodexArcanum, 8 miesięcy temu

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/2c316908-658a-4f63-9697-18a6dd13fa06.jpeg

CodexArcanum, 9 miesięcy temu

There’s some nostalgia goggles for sure.

I mean, the demo for Rollercoaster Tycoon (Mr. “Hand coded in assembly” there) bricked our Windows 98 machine when i installed it as a kid. My dad was pissed: we had to reformat the harddrive, reinstall windows, all that.

CodexArcanum, 9 miesięcy temu (edited 9 miesięcy temu)

One of my favorite pastimes as a kid was digging through the “1000s of Games” disc I had that was full of demos, shovelware, Doom mods, and tons of other garbage. Occasionally you’d find a diamond hidden in the turds.

There’s even a Youtuber who does “Shovelware Diggers” as a show and it’s just that! Him and his community riffle around in old shareware collections looking for treasures, which he showcases. (Edit to add: Looked it up and he ended the show after 300 episodes! He still does other retro gaming stuff too. youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCIZNtotF3Xh0dfQjJx8Xc… )

But yeah, most of the content on those discs would have qualified more as viruses than games, if they even ran in the first place!

CodexArcanum, 10 miesięcy temu

I remember being irritated about this in Falllout 3, but even more so that every person pre-war from the poorest child to the most exalted CEOs hoarded bottle caps and stuffed them into every ready container. Almost like they knew I’d need the cash decades later.

CodexArcanum, 10 miesięcy temu

Honestly, I wrote 200 years initially then couldn’t remember if they were actually that dumb, second guessed myself, and hedged on “decades.”

But yes, realizing that many places in America would have been uninhabited wilderness 200 years before today, the idea that major metro areas would still be untouched ruins 200 years after the war is just ludicrous.

I just put all this stuff in the same “ignore it for the gameplay” box as torches still being lit in ancient tombs and backwoods merchants accepting 1000 year old gold coins as currency for buying beef jerky or magic shields or whatever.

CodexArcanum, 10 miesięcy temu

Damn, I really need to stop letting how good Legend of Mana was convince me to give Squenix more chances on this series. But… this trailer does look very fun, kind if mix of the Tales series combat with Mana themes!

CodexArcanum, 11 miesięcy temu

I finally got around to beating Doom Eternal’s DLC, which I often found more of a grind than entertaining (some of the Ancient Gods fights just go on and on, and I hated the final boss.)

Then I started on Turbo Overkill, which does have a lot of Doom’s DNA but the pacing is a lot more fun so far! Been trying to get back into Hitman (3+2+1) as well.

But mostly I spend a shocking (to me) amount of my quick gaming time on Xenotilt: Hostile Pinball Action. I did not expect to get so completely absorbed into virtual pinball (been meaning to post about it on the pinball communities) but little by little I’ve been getting better at it. My current high score is only 1.2 billion, which feels good to get into the billions club but the ceiling is still so much higher!

CodexArcanum, rok temu

I played this one twice in a row when it came out, first on PS4 and then PC. Game of the decade for sure, and one of my all time favorites! It’s just so good!

Honestly, I got annoyed by the combat about 3/4s in, but the game has excellent “cheats” or aids, however you want to call them, for adjusting the gameplay. Tuning the damage multipliers made the end of the game a lot less grindy and frustrating. I wish every game had such excellent fine tuning of difficulty.

CodexArcanum, rok temu (edited rok temu)

Listen peasants, if you don’t like the freeholder fees we charge, then surely Lord Microsoft will shelter you on his lands as a serf, and pay your fees on your behalf.