culturedleftfoot's recent activity

  1. Comment on Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl performance – the hidden message in ~music

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    Yeah, as @datavoid said, this is pretty surface-level and fairly reachy. Half of his points are more about topics Kendrick addresses all the time rather than specifics of that performance. Here's...

    Yeah, as @datavoid said, this is pretty surface-level and fairly reachy. Half of his points are more about topics Kendrick addresses all the time rather than specifics of that performance.

    Here's a more thorough breakdown of the symbolism of his halftime show from Justin Hunte.

    1 vote

  2. Comment on What are your favourite time-loop based books, movies and video games? in ~talk

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    Man, it sounds like you weren't able to experience all that the game had to offer (there's sooooooooooooooooo much more to this game than just the thing)... that's a shame. I wish I knew the right...

    Man, it sounds like you weren't able to experience all that the game had to offer (there's sooooooooooooooooo much more to this game than just the thing)... that's a shame. I wish I knew the right thing to tell you that would help you shift your perspective!

    I will say, the pace of the platforms, elevators, and everything else is deliberate and does match with Blow's statement of respecting the player's time. The best analogy I can give is that it's intended to serve a similar purpose to negative space in photography/cinematography. It's easy to think, "that space is empty, it's a waste to include it," but the emptiness is what frames and focuses your attention. It's needed context, and the shot isn't effective without it.

    I understand if you're skeptical given your experience with the game, but... maybe we just need to slow down sometimes? Otherwise we miss the forest for the trees.

    2 votes

  3. Comment on What are your favourite time-loop based books, movies and video games? in ~talk

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    I don't want to argue the point, but I will just say it in case you are at all open to recontextualizing your experience: The Witness is just as respectful of your time as Braid, if not more. It...

    Braid - Another time manipulation puzzler, but probably one of the best (and more respectful of player time than The Witness.....)

    I don't want to argue the point, but I will just say it in case you are at all open to recontextualizing your experience: The Witness is just as respectful of your time as Braid, if not more. It simply depends on the mindset you bring to the game.

    2 votes

  4. Comment on Recommend me a racing/driving game on PC in ~games

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    I forgot to include R4 in my list! Had tons of fun with that.

    I forgot to include R4 in my list! Had tons of fun with that.

    1 vote

  5. Comment on What’s a book about your area that you think would be interesting to people outside of it? in ~books

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    I have three recommendations, all in the same vein: Soccernomics and Soccer Against The Enemy, both by Simon Kuper, as well as How Soccer Explains The World by Franklin Foer. All three are books...

    I have three recommendations, all in the same vein: Soccernomics and Soccer Against The Enemy, both by Simon Kuper, as well as How Soccer Explains The World by Franklin Foer. All three are books that examine globalization, tribalism, and national psyches, all through the prism of soccer. While there are references made in each that the knowledgeable fan will appreciate, experience with the game is not strictly necessary. The target audience is simply anyone curious about the world.

    Well, why soccer, then? IMO, for a number of relevant reasons.

    1. It's the most popular sport in the world. The barrier to entry is very low; the only equipment you need is a ball.
    2. Even at the highest levels, it accommodates the widest variety of players in terms of physical attributes - tall, short, stout, thin, fast, slow, etc.
    3. During the game, a player with the ball has a lot of options - they can pass the ball forward, sideways, or backwards; they can go long or they can play it short; they can keep the ball themselves and dribble; they can shoot to goal. They can use any part of their body except their hands. As a result, the decision that you make tells me who you are, what you value.
    4. For all those reasons above, soccer is the most representative sport in the world. It continually shapes and is shaped by history, culture, politics, economics, and can be argued as one of the most representative human activities, period.

    Disclaimer - all three books were published between early 1990s and the late noughties, during the rise of the globalization we take for granted today. I believe they've all been updated in newer editions, but my copies all come from before the ubiquity of social media, so some of the points made may not seem as prescient today. Still, they can offer illuminating insights to anyone new to the sport, as well as longtime fans.

    1 vote

  6. Recommend me a racing/driving game on PC

    ~games Ask (recommendations)
    My parameters are Any kind of racing - F1, Moto GP, X games, rallycross, antigravity... you name it. No subscriptions I lean away from sim/management games... I don't mind some customization, but...

    My parameters are

    • Any kind of racing - F1, Moto GP, X games, rallycross, antigravity... you name it.
    • No subscriptions
    • I lean away from sim/management games... I don't mind some customization, but I don't want to have to choose from 10 different types of brake pads for best performance on each track.
    • Combat optional
    • If it makes a difference, I'll be playing with a controller, not a racing wheel.

    [Edit: I should have specified - a modern racing game. I'm pretty versed on the options pre-2010, it's the new stuff I'm looking for.]

    I originally wanted a rally game to scratch a hillclimb itch but I'm open to whatever now. Trawling through Steam has made my head spin though.

    Previous racing games/series I've played and liked - Rallisport Challenge (really, if I could just play this again I'd be set), Wipeout 3, Road Rash, Ridge Racer Type 4, Twisted Metal 2, Jet Moto, Wave Race, Mario Kart, Sled Storm... OutRun! Showing my age here.

    Somehow I've never really liked Need For Speed.

    21 votes

  8. Comment on What are your favourite let's plays? in ~games

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    I don't think of it as a let's play per se, but Northernlion and Sinvicta Play - GeoGuessr! is great to run in the background or on a second monitor. They're both good at the game, they have an...

    I don't think of it as a let's play per se, but Northernlion and Sinvicta Play - GeoGuessr! is great to run in the background or on a second monitor. They're both good at the game, they have an easy chemistry with each other, there are four or five seasons with almost 300 episodes, and you can pretty much play any episode at random since there's no real progression to keep track of from game to game. It's good, entertaining banter with some passive learning about the world thrown in.

  9. Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: Holiday 2024 in ~games

  10. Comment on Spotify shuts down ‘Unwrapped’ artist royalty calculator with legal threats – site still includes the formula behind the calculator for artists and music lovers who are curious in ~music

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    Yasiin Bey, f.k.a. Mos Def, has been a vocal critic of Spotify for years. Here's a great clip of him addressing fans of Black Star (of which he and interviewer Talib Kweli are members) who...

    Yasiin Bey, f.k.a. Mos Def, has been a vocal critic of Spotify for years. Here's a great clip of him addressing fans of Black Star (of which he and interviewer Talib Kweli are members) who persistently asked why they decided to place their highly anticipated, then-upcoming sophomore album exclusively on Luminary and not make it available on Spotify. It really serves to reframe the paradigm around contemporary music consumption.

    2 votes

  11. Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: Holiday 2024 in ~games

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    I got so much more out of CrossCode than I bargained for. I'd vaguely kept tabs on it a little before release, thinking that it seemed like a neat little idea for a game, with the virtual MMORPG...

    I got so much more out of CrossCode than I bargained for. I'd vaguely kept tabs on it a little before release, thinking that it seemed like a neat little idea for a game, with the virtual MMORPG premise and the throwing-ball combat. After having bought it, I left off after close to 250 hours, including the DLC chapter, and completed pretty much everything except some of the optional post-game challenges.

    It's a nice blend of action/puzzle/RPG elements. Gameplay-wise, I enjoyed the puzzle dungeons more than anything else, but the combat is definitely worth a mention. You can mostly get by with button-mashing, but the skill ceiling is deceptively, ridiculously high, to the extent that I had to recontextualize the whole thing in my mind when I saw some of the late-game/post-game stuff. The biggest hook for me was the story though. Without spoiling anything, I got some pretty unexpected surprises, and the writing team absolutely nails it. Some of the best character writing I've seen in any video game.

    You can absolutely tell that it was a labor of love for the team behind it. There are tons of settings you can tweak for accessibility and difficulty, so you can make it as challenging as you want or breeze through and enjoy the story. Also, there are so many accessories/armors/weapons that you can run various builds for the main character according to your play style, which is nice.

    I don't really have any advice for you, apart from just go ahead and have as much fun as you can. You're in for a treat!

    4 votes

  12. Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: Holiday 2024 in ~games

  13. Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: Holiday 2024 in ~games

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    Tangent: Did you post your thoughts on Bo: PotTL? It looks like a cross between Okami and Ori, which puts it right up my alley, but it also reminds me A LOT of Nine Sols (albeit Japanese rather...

    Tangent: Did you post your thoughts on Bo: PotTL? It looks like a cross between Okami and Ori, which puts it right up my alley, but it also reminds me A LOT of Nine Sols (albeit Japanese rather than Chinese), which I haven't got around to playing yet but definitely will.

    2 votes

  14. Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: Holiday 2024 in ~games

    culturedleftfoot
    (edited )
    Link
    I'll join in the holiday cheer. I really just want to promote games I think more people should know about, so I'm going to give away some stuff from my Followed list on Steam (which usually means...
    • Exemplary

    I'll join in the holiday cheer.

    I really just want to promote games I think more people should know about, so I'm going to give away some stuff from my Followed list on Steam (which usually means that I own it, have played it, or think it's interesting in some way but I wouldn't have the time to play it myself). Bolded titles have my personal recommendation.

    By December 31st I will give away at least 10 games, and it might turn out to be more. Method will be direct gift on Steam, meaning you'll have to temporarily add me to your friends list. Selection process will have no real rationale. It might be whatever Santa tells me, it might be what you say about why the game caught your interest, or it might just be the random number generator. Reply with up to three games of your choice and take your chances.

    Support small businesses and play some indie games!
    I swear I don't only look for games with pixel art.

    Games

    80 Days won!
    A Memoir's Blue
    Anemoiapolis: Chapter 1
    Antichamber
    BELOW
    Bonfire Peaks
    CrossCode won!
    Cursed To Golf
    Dap
    Dust: An Elysian Tail
    El Hijo - A Wild West Tale
    ElecHead
    Enter The Gungeon
    Fez
    Firework
    Gorogoa won!
    Helldivers (1, not 2 that came out this year)
    Indivisible
    INK
    INMOST
    INSIDE
    Invisible, Inc.
    Iron Crypticle
    Journey
    Juicy Realm
    La-Mulana
    LIMBO
    Linelight won!
    LOCKDOWN Protocol
    Master Spy
    LUMINES REMASTERED
    Long Dream
    Loretta
    Midnight Ghost Hunt
    Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
    Mondealy
    Moon Hunters
    Neo Cab
    Neon Abyss
    Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna)
    Night Call
    Octahedron: Transfixed Edition
    Once Again
    One Finger Death Punch
    Orbital Bullet
    Ori and the Blind Forest
    Overgrowth
    Pid
    Pipe Push Paradise won!
    Planet Cube: Edge
    Raji: An Ancient Epic
    Road 96
    Room 301 NO.6
    Sayonara Wild Hearts won!
    Seek Etyliv
    Soda Crisis
    Souldiers
    Starseed Pilgrim
    Stealth Bastard Deluxe
    Super Magbot
    Tales of the Neon Sea
    The Artful Escape
    The Gardens Between
    The Gunk
    The Heroes Around Me
    The Red Strings Club
    The Rewinder
    The Witness won!
    Tokyo 42
    Twelve Minutes
    Undying
    Vagante
    Wavetale
    Within The Blade
    Xuan-Yuan Sword: Mists Beyond the Mountains
    ZERO Sievert

    8 votes

  15. Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: Holiday 2024 in ~games

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    Wow, I wonder if they even make those anymore? It's so interesting to hear that would be the toy that sticks out in someone's memory. Nowadays a child might spend about 5 minutes with that......

    Wow, I wonder if they even make those anymore? It's so interesting to hear that would be the toy that sticks out in someone's memory. Nowadays a child might spend about 5 minutes with that... they'd probably prefer it as an app :(

  16. Comment on You've never seen (or heard) a game quite like 'Skate Story' in ~games

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    This game looks cool. This video, though, is amazingly well done. It contextualizes something that I would have found a neat little oddity if I came across it on my own, and I'm sure it's some of...

    This game looks cool. This video, though, is amazingly well done. It contextualizes something that I would have found a neat little oddity if I came across it on my own, and I'm sure it's some of the best promo the game will get.

    4 votes

  17. Comment on Anyone interested in trying out Kagi? in ~tech

  18. Comment on Anyone interested in trying out Kagi? in ~tech

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    First I've heard of this. If anyone has an extra invite burning a hole in their pocket, I'd like to give it a whirl.

    First I've heard of this. If anyone has an extra invite burning a hole in their pocket, I'd like to give it a whirl.

  19. Comment on TV Tuesdays Free Talk in ~tv

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    Watched Shōgun over the past week or so, after 20+ years of my brother unsuccessfully bugging me to read the book. It's fantastic! The story is gripping, the actors put in some amazing...

    Watched Shōgun over the past week or so, after 20+ years of my brother unsuccessfully bugging me to read the book. It's fantastic! The story is gripping, the actors put in some amazing performances, and the art direction is just gorgeous. I know it could never live up to the source material for those who read it, but maybe I was meant to wait for the adaptation. The show made the decision to present things not just from Blackthorne's perspective but also from the perspective of the Japanese characters as well, which surely helped its cause - I'm not sure I'd have the same tolerance nowadays for yet another white-character-in-exotic-land narrative as I would have had in the pre-internet days, when it was so much harder to access that exotic culture directly.

    2 votes

  20. Comment on Great shows with interesting premises? in ~tv