Recent reviews by catbox

anticipation:
noun
The act of expecting or foreseeing something; expectation or presentiment.
An expectation.
Action taken in order to prevent or counteract something.

transvestite:
noun
A person who dresses in a style or manner traditionally associated with the opposite sex.
A person who sometimes wears clothes traditionally worn by and associated with the opposite sex; typically a male who cross-dresses occasionally by habit or compulsion.
Someone who adopts the dress or manner or sexual role of the opposite sex.

retro:
adjective
Retroactive.
Involving, relating to, or reminiscent of an earlier time; retrospective.
Of, or relating to the past, past times, or the way things were.

at once the flames burn through purposeful ellipsis of ventured wastes
another formless encounter shambles forth among the soothing selfless encrustments
favored epiphanies tangibly twist gorged fleeting banalities on wingless flightless shores
distance dreamed remembered as once at duplicate doppleganged graingers


GNU/LINUX (auto clicked with xclicker)

In the kingdom of the dead, where time stands still and the last rays of sunlight are but a distant memory, there exists a realm unlike any other. A realm where the veil between life and death is but a whisper, and the souls of the departed roam freely, their ethereal forms drifting through the mist-shrouded streets. Here, in this eternal twilight, a young girl named Luna finds herself, newly arrived from the mortal world. She does not remember how she got here or why she was brought here, but she knows that this is not her home. She feels lost and alone, as if she is stuck in some strange, unending dream.

The kingdom is ruled by a malevolent force known as the King of the Dead, who seeks to control the very essence of life itself. He has enslaved the souls of the dead, forcing them to serve him in his malevolent schemes. Luna soon discovers that she possesses a unique gift: the ability to see through the King of the Dead's dark machinations and resist his sinister influence. As she explores the kingdom, she encounters other souls who have not yet fallen under the King of the Dead's sway, and they join her in her quest to free the enslaved souls and defeat the King of the Dead once and for all.

Along her journey, Luna finds an ancient artifact known as the Sword of Abyss, which has the power to dispel the King of the Dead's dark magic and restore light and life to the kingdom. However, the King of the Dead is aware of her discovery and sends his minions to retrieve the sword at all costs. Luna and her newfound allies must now evade the King of the Dead's forces and find a way to use the sword to free the enslaved souls and defeat the King of the Dead.

The kingdom is a labyrinthine network of cobblestone streets and crumbling tombs, each more treacherous than the last. The mist that shrouds the land thins in places, revealing glimpses of grand architecture and towering statues that once adorned the kingdom in its glory days, before the King of the Dead's reign of terror. As they race through the twisting streets, Luna and her companions must use their wits and their unique abilities to outmaneuver the King of the Dead's minions.

The battle between good and evil rages on throughout the kingdom, with Luna leading the charge against the King of the Dead's army of undead minions. She uses her gift to confuse and disrupt their sinister plans, while her allies fight valiantly by her side. After many grueling battles and narrow escapes, they finally manage to reach the King of the Dead's throne room. There, they confront the malevolent ruler himself, who is wreathed in darkness and surrounded by the stolen essence of life.


GNU/Linux proton-GE 7.55
(review ai generated: "kingdom of the dead review by edgar allan poe")

what level of absurd creativity we witness
if only there was more chaotic fluid birthed from these short narratives
as good as an idea tremors forth, there are unreasonable conclusions preventing closure

is there a catacomb under your government building?
what feeling emerges from the ending?
foregone the interlude between.


GODOT game engine
https://karbonic.itch.io/psychopomp
GNU/Linux proton 8.0-5

we live in a society bounded by certain decreed logical appropriations of community civility

when those ideas are cast aside to forego one's own ambitions then we engage a chaotic endeavor

higher self worth and pretence oft lacking insight and judgement beyond the clouds of imaginations

futility avails at times yearning a deeper lost continuance from events beyond our capability


GNU/Linux - proton 7.0-6

if im dreaming then why does it hurt so much?
have you ever had a dream where you were in pain or felt death?
perhaps you enjoyed those toilet dreams but in waking life you are soaked in your own urine.
what consciousness becomes in the dream like state is still a mystery because we cannot measure it or create it.
what science knows about our minds is a facade between reality and the imagination.

what i was expecting was a sort of "lovecraftian" experience, yes its based on a story and inspired by that lore.
the story i visited was unique, a different but familiar take on those past ideas.
we are transported visually between many different locations, but are we truely experiencing this place or are we on the cusp of death and our unconscious imagination has entered a dream or is it a hallucination?
there is not an answer, a final truth, about what really happened.

the visuals and voices are very well throught out pieces of your experience.
as the medium of senses go this is all you can accomplish is good audio and acceptable perceptions.
as many stories are narrated by the linear path there is not much you can do to avoid the final conclusions.
a curiosity for exploring the world can be rewarding, i thought i was very thorough in my peeking in every corner.
somehow i missed enough things that would add substance to the background of this expereince.
another artist vision repeated as many times as anyone can afford, the same thing again.
they are becomming commonplace as to feel mundane instead of thoughtfully evoking.horror.

this is the moment i just wanted to end it all.
the moment i wanted to stop the adventure was each time your control was removed for a noisy hallucination cutscene which was indicated by your glove tool.
faux jumpscares were entertaining but the worst is being "chased" for simulated effects of fear.
then after this "horrible death" instead of dying, you are tormented again until you figure out (or visit a guide) what to do to get away from this nightmare.

one of the few last remnants of STEAM FOR LINUX gaming,
UnrealEngine4: good settings/options which means the developers put in effort,
the audio has an issue with popping/crackling/clipping here with me...i am unsure what causes it, i do not experience this elsewhere at any time - currently.

played on GNU/LINUX

Bobok (1873)
Fyodor Dostoevsky

-

A strange requirement. I did not resent it, I am a timid man; but here they have actually made me out mad. An artist painted my portrait as it happened: "After all, you are a literary man," he said. I submitted, he exhibited it. I read: "Go and look at that morbid face suggesting insanity."

It may be so, but think of putting it so bluntly into print. In print everything ought to be decorous; there ought to be ideals, while instead of that . . .

Say it indirectly, at least; that's what you have style for. But no, he doesn't care to do it indirectly. Nowadays humour and a fine style have disappeared, and abuse is accepted as wit. I do not resent it: but God knows I am not enough of a literary man to go out of my mind. I have written a novel, it has not been published. I have written articles - they have been refused. Those articles I took about from one editor to another; everywhere they refused them: you have no salt they told me. "What sort of salt do you want?" I asked with a sneer. "Attic salt?"

“Of such great powers or beings there may be conceivably a survival ... a survival of a hugely remote period when ... consciousness was manifested, perhaps, in shapes and forms long since withdrawn before the tide of advancing humanity ... forms of which poetry and legend alone have caught a flying memory and called them gods, monsters, mythical beings of all sorts and kinds....”
-- Algernon Blackwood.


The Call of Cthulhu (1928) Howard Phillips Lovecraft

I. The Horror in Clay.

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
-- a Dream

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion... I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... Time to die." -- Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) BladeRunner (1982)

GNU/Linux version playthrough *mostly* works: issue with mouse cursor at center screen, opening and intro videos dont have audio in game (unreal engine / fmod issue)

STROGG.

the first time i played Quake 2 in late 97 or early 1998 was a new experience.
the internet was fresh, i had been playing Quake Team Fortress endlessly with my Voodoo 3 3000 AGP 16MB SDR graphics card and a Cyrix 6x86....
Q2 CTF was the new hot ♥♥♥♥, everyone was playing this "mod" which later patches became part of the game officially.
more deeply, i only played Q2 deathmatch and CTF, i never got into the singleplayer campaign.
i was fully absorbed in the Q1 Cthulhu Dark Chaotic Architecture compared to the Militaristic Alien Strogg Bases of Q2.
aside from continuing the endless 2FORT4 matches in Team Fortress 1.7 (quake1) i played both of these at their prime, in the height of internet gaming excellence.