#Pointman

[thecountofs]

Pointman (F.E.A.R)

[warhead]

[liquidrenders]

F.E.A.R

[azulso]

Kay Challis alters by

[the-mercurial-star-o-vesper]

FIRST ENCOUNTER ASSAULT RECON - Thoughts (Part 1?)

So I went back and got the game "FEAR" up and working (I have an MSI gaming compooter with Win 11, so it took an FPS and .dll fix), but I'mm playing it again, after... well, Years.

And I gotta say, for an early 2000s game, it fucked then and it fucks now. I can't recommend it enough.

You've got dynamic learning game-AI enemies, that adapt to your stragedic style and will react to you. (And that's Pre-Statistical Intelligence (So what current-day buzzwords as "AI") so this is actual game-AI--let's get that knee jerk reaction outta the way). This dynamic learning is unique, so far, to FEAR. There are few games that have that kind of dynamic learning.

Secondly--everything is Horror. This is a rare game where First-Person-Shooter actually meshes with the Horror extremely well, without it having to be survival. With the dynamic-learning game-AI enemies above--you'll be struggling already on the Shooter side, whilst the story, the in-story politics and the Ghosts of the past take care of the Horror-Typical side.

FEAR is just beautiful.

( SIDEBAR: Its sequels...? No. Not, not so much. in fact, I'd argue that you should ignore the sequels and the Expansions. You only need FEAR. When I was young I would've accepted them and said "YAY THE HORROR IS REALLY HERE!". Now that I'm older and experienced and can actually appreciate the details and the steps, I'mma tell ya--the Horror of FEAR was beautiful by itself, and the rest is just oil-burnt-fat and flotsam. You just need to slow down, and consider it... that's how Horror works.)

( SIDEBAR: in truth, most of what is called "Horror" in games is just "Terror". And frankly we could do with less Terror-Genre. FEAR is actual horror, and uses terror more tastefully than most "Horror-called" games. )

And since I'm playing it again, slowly considering it, what it has and how it works, I've got... a random assortment of thoughts and I'm gonna make everyone suffer them :D

Let's begin.

One) The best part of the supernatural element of the game? Is the lack of explanations. There's no X-men descriptions of the powers used, there's no real explanation of why certain characters have them.

And personally, I like that. Because it makes it more fun to point out what powers are being used where, and the characters reactions to them are great--because these are "real people" written characters who reside in a grounded reality--and fucking psychic powers don't just show up outside of TV fiction.

So when the psychic and ghosts pop up, nobody is gonna fuckin believe it and its not even considered.

( What is interesting is that our Pointman knows that this psychic shit is happening, but seems to never report it... )

Paxton Fettel, our actual Psychic Commander, has several psychic powers we see.

Telepathy, is implied because he has control over a psychic-receptive army of clones (this game did come out 2005--golly I wonder what might've inspired an army of clones led by psychic people (Attack of the Clones)

Telekinetics. I mean this is implied outright? Because we never really see it. Alma mostly uses this one.

Projection (Self). Actually this is one of the most interesting powers by experience. Its implied, by how he appears and disappears, and how his "signal" also randomly appears and disappears, that Project involves also physically appearing in another place in part. You can be in two places at once (albeit the projection is more unstable).

Projection (Place). This one is more or less You, the person experiencing it, only Perceive that you're in another place, rather than actual teleportation. And thanks to how self-projection works, you prolly were semi-projected into those illusions (hence why the strange wraiths (called "Nightmares") can get you).

Consumption. The concept of eating something and gaining its power / presence. Fettel makes it a practice to eat targetted people in order to gain their memories, and he doesn't have to eat all of them, nor does he have to eat the specific brain. ( There's a fanfic idea of "memonic impressions" I could throw out)

Liquidfaction. I've never seen Fettel use this, but Alma uses it extensively. She just, fucking Liquifies you, your equipment, your armor, all of it. Till you're bone.

Alma has the "Empathic" ability. She can literally get into your head.

Two) THe Pointman has psychic powers, if he gets near objects, they'll fucking hop away. He jumpscares chairs.

( The game's gravity engine either works like Halo 3? Or fucks up like Gmod. But I personally subscribe to the idea that that's just Pointman's psychic abillites popping up--he makes the chairs jump )

Three) I fucking love the Replicas. They're clever, they're funny, and like any anime, after I defeat them, I want them as my friends. Shame this is a first person shooter.

I also like the ideas behind the Replicas. They can't think for themselves outside of combat. If you down them before they enter combat, they'll simply go down like dolls-- but you're engaged with them it takes a LOT to put them down, and sometimes, they'll get right back up.

( They peculiarly seem to act like puppets on strings if they're wounded enough. )

( There was at least one guy who went down, and then he pushed himself back up against like a normal person... before I downed him again. )

They don't have a psychic network between each other, so they do have to radio in things as situations evolve. They'll even tell each other to "Shut the fuck up" (Funniest things Imaginable) if I'm in the area and combat is eminent. In fact, that's the only way you know they're in the area and how many...

... unless you're a cautious player, like me, and they go radio silent to get the jump. Which they will do. Because game-wise, they have dynamic learning and countering your combat style is how they work. I've had so many Replicas hide behind things just to jump or flank me as I go through (i'm very stealthy).

Story implication wise--they are at least semi-conscious enough to both work in combat, have stress responses (like you can scare and piss them off), language and radioing in, there is, in fact, a Replica Command / Commander your never encounter who sets missions, so differing skills across all Replicas with a rank hierarchy...

... But the fact that they all fall under Fettel, suggests that every combat we face--we're technically facing Fettel. He can see through these soldiers' eyes and knows what we're doing and how, and can command them to perform certain maneuvers.

Implying in-game that the dynamic learning AI's analog is Fettel's psychic control.

Additional fun things is... the Replicas have a bad habit of just, leaving their stuff around. Armor, Medkits, weapons, EXPLOSIVES... like boys, don't you have an armory to lock that shit up in? Don't just leave it lying around, my gods XD

Four) One expansion wants to claim that the Replicas are all clones of Fettel.

I'm gonna claim, "Fuck no did you even play FEAR?"

Think about it.

All the weaponry the REplicas use, the Pointman can use. So both sides can use those weapons.

The weapons and armor found constantly, are also indicative of Replicas. The Pointman can use that replacement armor to armor himself up. Beyond Game-mechanics, It ALWAYS fits.

And consider between the Pointman and Fettel. Fettel relies mostly on his psychic abilities, or has a knife (which never appears as a weapon in-game). He's not the combat-kid outta the two "prototypes".

Meanwhile, Pointman gets sucked into every psychic event known to everybody, extremely easily, and in fact, nobody else even notices things. no events, no ghosts (Alice didn't even notice her own dead sister in the elevator with her).

I propose that the person the Replicas were cloned from... is actually the Pointman. Meaning the Replicas' voices are what the Pointman actually sounds like, if he could speak. Same combat abilities and training, same single minded drive to follow orders...

... the only differences are, is the Pointman's Reflex ability (which can be named a psychic power too--its that rapid movement shit ghosts do), his "psychic powers" to jumpscare chairs, and the fact that he is self-thinking enough to carry out nearly every mission given to him without question or problem, and just like a Replica's combat reaction, doesn't even react to being shot at by anything.

And if you're wondering why he's not with Armstech and Project Perseus anymore...

Well, thanks to in-game politics "cleaning up" the remains of Project Origins in favor of Project Perseus... (And failing spectacularly, which cause the games' events).

And Aristide having the state-government in her pocket...

Well, suddenly, you have an explanation of why Pointman is with FEAR. FEAR is a government program, and putting the Pointman in a place where he's both out of the way but also in easy access for more "DNA" for future possible clones, and what little psychic ability he does have can easily be explained away.

Effectively, there was no person greater to face all his clones, and the fact that he was constantly facing a poor replica of himself in each battle.

Five)... Why does the Pointman Look like transformers' Grimlock?

ME POINTMAN SAYS THAT'S SUSPICIOUS.

Six) Alma Wade and Alessa Gilespie would be the best of friends. Who knows, if there's ever a crossover, may it'll turn out that they're twins or something, and Harlan Wade got with Dahlia Gillespie.

Eugh...

Seven) Alma is a damn good example that being a victim doesn't exclude you from villainy--it just makes you a different kind of villain that still needs to be stopped.

Yeah she's a kid mentally, but she's killing people in horrible ways. She's actively made both of her sons miserable and beyond the capacity of a normal life, by her actions.

I pity her? But that's not gonna stop me from stopping her by any means necessary.

Eight) Thems who was eaten by Fettel become Ghosts. Like, they prolly project off of him. This brings the weird suggestion that Fettel was eating peoples' "Souls" in a sense...

Also means that Jankowski? He's dead, man. He got Ate. The reason he got ate, was prolly so that Fettel could learn more bout the Pointman. And in turn, Jankowski learned more about the Pointman in reverse.

Fettel is a collection of Souls.

Nine) The existence of Alice Wade, Alma's little sister, is... horrifying to think about. Its implied that she was born after Alma's sealing.

And the fact that Alma didn't fucking kill her, even though she was in the same vacinity, suggests that Alma is curious or fond of her too--though not necessarily fond enough to save her at all...

Harlan Wade apparently wanted to start over with a NORMAL family, rather than care for the poor child whose life he fucking ruined.

What happened to Alma is entirely this asshole's fault.

Ten) one of the fun bits I've had in this game is the slow uncovering of lore. Phone records, Laptop files, the slow and choiceful decision to know what's going on and how, I think, is a great way to share information with the player.

You learn why Fettel is targetting people. You learn why things went so bad, and how the game started.

You learn about you.

It doesn't stop the Mission... But it gives clarity of World-Build History and Character.

And I fucking love it.

Eleven) The Backdrop Enviroment is alive.

You're in a city with real people. You run into Radios of newsbroadcasts, which show off what the average person is seeing outside of your Interval missions, and what the situation looks like to the (local) world.

This makes the world feel more Real. Or Immersive as game magazines would put it.

In addition to the environments. We're not in combat zones, this isn't Call of Duty or Counterstrike-- we're in offices and work-plants you'd see in normal cities. Part of that contributes to the uncanny feeling that we're in the wrong place at all times. Supernatural Shit, Hostile Clone Soldiers, Future-Technologies... are all occuring in normal 9-to-5 places, and instead of being outta place--it contributes to the horror of the situation...

Normal people, example at the Water Plant, are being caught up in this god awful situation. The normal world is going away as clones, psychics and ghosts take the center stage, breaking the idea of normalacy forever... for all of it was just broiling under the surface of this one city.

Even in lore... Folks were avoiding an older part of the city, for unknown reasons, but we know the reason--Alma is in a Vault underneath the abandoned part of the city.. and good chance she was using it as her psychic playground.

And then it ends in the worse case scenario--straight outta the Cold War Safety Records: A nuke is detonated on site, IN the ground, with no evacuation order for the local populace (which given that its a city, is in the tens to hundreds of thousands)

Horror and Terror is balanced in FEAR.

From the hunting enemies who learn how you work and adapt to put you down, to the supernatural ghosts and powers that will invade your mind, to the horrifying inhuman apathy of politics and high power, and to those who believe that to stop one person you sacrifice hundreds of thousands to nuclear fire and damn the world in the process.

I can't recommend the game highly enough.

[introspect-la]

UNTITLED COLLAGE BY FUTURA DURING ART SESSIONS FOR PSYENCE FICTION BY UNKLE (1998)

[sad-sad-detective]

Day 5 - Map.

Those two.

[orion-poka-chip]

UNKLE – The Time Has Come E.P.

[pointman-2]

PointMan is an advanced utility mapping software that facilitates accurate underground infrastructure mapping, analysis, and reporting, from the convenience of a smartphone.

[weirdpunk29]

dwarven cleric

[williamrablan]

What I'm reading - Walking Point by Chuck Dean

A long time ago, I reported to Fort McClellan Alabama for basic training. At a place called the “Reception Station”, they cut my hair (not exactly a Patrick Stewart style, but close), issued me clothing that reeked of mothballs, and got all the paperwork done that said I was a member of the United States Army. But, while I looked like a soldier (I certainly had the haircut and the uniform), it…

[deadbunnys]

STUNNING! Pointman AV-001L x @futuradosmil @futuralaboratories @arr.allrightsreserved & @ddtstore #pointman #av001light #futura #futura2000 #futuralaboratories #allrightsreserved #ddtstore #sculpture #stainlesssteel #urbanculture #toyart #toystagram #toysofinstagram #alltoysareart #instaart #artgram #deadbunnystore #repost (at Dead Bunny Store) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoXJP6yugTP/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[warhead]

[newarc]

"Lucky" O'Leary. Mackenzie wolf oc

[cthulhubert]

Reading the original Vampire Hunter D novels was a very fascinating experience that I can't actually recommend to anyone.

In most ways, they're very straight-forward pulpy adventure stories. Nothing about the plots or dialogue are compelling. The translation is competent at least.

But the world building is fascinating, rife with fun little details.It's like the author, Hideyuki Kikuchi thought of some off the wall stuff and threw it in for aesthetics, but then comes up with background to explains it, and then actually builds on that explanation, rather than leave it as a fig leaf.

The books are set post post post apocalypse. Humanity nearly wiped themselves out in a nuclear war, so the vampires and other creatures of the night came out of hiding and ruled for ten thousand years... and then started slowly but steadily declining. No longer strong enough to have total control over the world, but more than powerful enough to topple humanity's attempts to organize.

Humanity is in this weird pseudo-medieval state except they also have stuff like cyber-horses. Why? Because that's how the Aristocracy (the v-word is gauche) liked it!

Humanity has been genetically engineered with psychological blocks, such that if they ever learn about the vampires' great weaknesses (other than the sun: garlic, crosses, holy water) they'll immediately forget them!

It's ostensibly "pure sci-fi" because there's no magic. The story is clear about this. Vampires just have novel biology. That gives them telekinesis. (And hemokinesis too. I've always thought that should be a fundamental vampire ability. It's how they slurp every last drop of blood out of a human without needing to like suspend the body and let them bleed out. They also soak cloaks with the blood of virgins over the course of decades and end up with one they can control, to turn into shield or sword.)

D is your classic pulp-y OP protagonist (I compare him in my mind to Doc Savage). Made from the gametes of the Aristocracy's greatest scientist and genetic engineer (whose name also starts with D, wink wink nudge nudge), and his lover: humanity's greatest psychic. He was implanted with a parasite engineered to not take over his body and be helpful instead. He inherited an indestructible sword crafted by the greatest swordsmith who ever lived. He's equipped with a supercomputer in a pendent that can auto-hack most technological locks and defenses. He uses the same cyber-horses as everyone else, but because of his "ability to commune with their inner natures" can wring double performance out of them.

What started me thinking about this is the dhampir like protagonist of yet another forgettable Isekai story (actually, this was a "Returner" manhwa, a genre much more popular in Korea now, which involves people reincarnating back from isekai worlds, or traveling back in time, etc). This guy, like the protagonists of many stories, is so overpowered he is a geopolitical super-power embodied in a single person. That always takes me out of the story, because I can only think about how much responsibility that would entail in my mind, and these guys just use it to fuck around.

[valeriley]

@inception30daychallenge day 23: if you had to be stuck on a deserted island with an Inception character, who would you choose?

Well, the first person I thought of was Arthur. I mean, he's knowledgeable about all sorts of weird things and so very resourceful and has probably learned all sorts of survival skills, so I'm sure he's going to find a solution to our predicament and a way to not die in the meantime.

Alternatively Saito, who would have a team rescue him so swiftly and surely we wouldn't even get the chance to be worried but treat it as a little vacation far from annoying everyday problems, lol.