#Vanguard Skeleton Color Dreams

[watchilove]

Modern arts and craftsmanship in the Franck Muller Vanguard Collection: Crazy Hours Arctic Snoopy, Vanguard™ Color Dreams Loes Van Delft and Vanguard™ Slim Skeleton

Franck Muller likes to challenge the boundaries of fine watchmaking even further by integrating modern art and exceptional skills. This month, the Genevan Independent surprises with a new collaboration with Bamford Watch Department and PEANUTS™, releasing the sweet Vanguard Crazy Hours Arctic Snoopy. A new collaboration with the talented Dutch artist Loes Van Delft brings colours in focus in the…

[theenclave1]

Franck Muller Vanguard Seven Days Power Reserve Skeleton Color Dreams

[nikhilbola]

Franck Muller graduated from the renowned watchmaker's school in Geneva, his hometown. Although he began producing watches a decade earlier, it was only in 1991 that he established the company that bears his name. Franck Muller is an accomplished and highly-skilled watchmaker that produces some exceptional timepieces, most of which are of limited edition.

[relogioserelogios]

About to open its first boutique in São Paulo, Franck Muller presents the Vanguard Skeleton Color Dreams in Carbon! The model is equipped with an in-house manual winding movement with colored anodized aluminum bridges and a 7-day power reserve. 💰 USD 59,700 . O modelo é equipado com um movimento a corda manual in-house com pontes coloridas em alumínio anodizado e 7 dias de reserva de marcha. 💰 59.700 Dólares 📷 @franckmuller_geneve • • #franckmuller #vanguard #franckmullervanguard #vanguardskeletoncarbon #vanguardcolordreams #finewatchmaking #hautehorlogerie #relogioserelogios https://www.instagram.com/p/CXoPkDbOxI4/?utm_medium=tumblr

[i-do-trash-fanfictions]

Character Creation: Ann

(I may do one for Zane-2 and Sora if I have the time)

Guardians name: Angelica Arden

Age: When she died in her past life she was only 17. She has been a Guardian for 1 year.

Race: Human

Pronouns: She/her

Class: Hunter

Preferred subclass(es): Arcstrider and also Stasis

Ghost's name: Poppy

Do they prefer being close, mid, or long range: It doesn’t matter to her, though she’s really good at long range.

Do they lean more "Element of Surprise" or "Upfront and Aggressive": She likes “Element of Surprise” more.

Strikes, Gambit, or Crucible: Crucible.

Who was their mentor(if they had one. If it is a character you created, tell us about them!): Thera, the Young Wolf, Hero of the Red War, and more. 

Favorite shader: Anything with bright colors. Especially light blues.

Favorite color: Blue, light blue specifically. 

Favorite food: Pizza

Favorite Pre-Collapse music(if they've heard any): Like Thera, she enjoys classic rock and oldies music. But she also likes our modern day pop music some too.

Favorite place in The Last City(if it's a place you created, give a little description!): The place where the children play. She goes out there with Shaxx every week on Wednesdays to hang out with them.

Favorite NPC(s): Crow, Shaxx, Saint-14, Shaw Han, Amanda

Favorite patrol location: Anywhere on Nessus

5 things your Guardian likes(can be anything): Art, spicy foods, ship racing, music, and movies like Footloose.

Least favorite food: Potatoes

Least favorite NPC(s): Spider

5 things your Guardian dislikes(this can be anything): Paperwork, being alone for too long, staying in the Tower for too long and not going anywhere for more than a day, drawing hands, and trying to get the eyes to line up on her art.

Your Guardian has to rest. What is their living space like: Ann’s room is cluttered. There’s a lot of sketchbook and pens, pencils, and more everywhere. It’s a lot smaller than Thera’s room, and the bathroom is really small too. She has a small shelf that hangs on the wall where she keeps a few interesting romance books that she likes, and sketchbooks. She also has a decent sized desk, and a easel with canvases in one side of the room.

Does your Guardian have any casual wear?(Y'all remember Polyvore? The website URSTYLE works very similar if that helps!): When Ann isn’t going out, she likes to wear a hoodie and sweatpants, but when she goes out, she’ll wear a tanktop or t-shirt, with comfy pants and tennis shoes.

What hobbies and/or skills does you Guardian have: Angelica’s really good at any kind of art. Painting, pencil, you name it, she can do it.

What would your Guardian's lore book be called: The Wolf’s Apprentice

Where was your Guardian reborn?(If you created the location, give us a little description!): Like Thera, she was reborn in the Cosmodrome. Her body, a skeleton, had been in the back of one of the many rusted cars.

What were they wearing when they were reborn: A tight tank top, light blue colored jeans, and tennis shoes. 

What was their reaction to being reborn: She had stopped and instead of going into the Cosmodrome, she turned and looked out over the nearby cliff, enjoying being alive again in that very moment.

What was their reaction to their first rez: Ann found it really weird but also really cool, besides the slight nausea. 

After being reborn, did they meet friendlies first or hostiles: She met hostiles first. Fallen.

Who was the first other Guardian they met?(Same thing! If you made them, give a little description!): Shaw Han.

Did your Guardian get reborn with, or find, any indication of their past life? If so what do they have/found: She, like Thera, also remembered only her name. But a good number of weeks after she had been a Guardian for a while, she got a dream about the car she was rezzed in. She believed that there would be hints of her past life in the car, that she hadn’t thought to look for after she had just been rezzed. Ann told Thera, and the two headed there. She found a shoebox under the car seat which had her full name. Angelica Arden, written on the top. Also, inside she found bits and pieces of who she used to be, including a photo of her parents.

Going back to your Guardian's lore book, what would be some some quotes or passages from their book: Ann would constantly be referencing the fact that Thera, the Young Wolf, was her best friend. Honestly, the lore book would probably be filled with a bunch of adventures Thera and Ann have had.

Does your Guardian have a significant other: No, but it is evident that she likes Shaw Han, and that he likes her.

Did your Guardian go explore first before going to The Last City? If so, where to: She was actually the Guardian who helped out Shaw Han and killed Navota, which is why the two are so close. I decided that it wouldn’t make sense for Thera to be the one to do that deed, since it didn’t really fit, but that it instead made sense for Ann to be the one to kill Navota. 

What was their reaction to first seeing The Last City: Ann was shy upon reaching there, but wanted to see everything. She was really excited. It was then she met Thera, since her Ghost, Poppy was friends with Thera’s Ghost, Scout. Poppy had gone and found the two, and Thera offered to help show Ann around.

Is your Guardian a part of a clan: No.

If your Guardian would have a quote as a flavor text for a weapon and/or piece of armor, what would they be: “Listen, as Thera once said, ‘Jump around, shoot, and don’t die. Those are the basics.’.”

If your Guardian has had any interactions with any civilians (The Last City/The Farm), Eliksni, Cabal, Vex, Hive, Taken, Scorn, Rouge Lightbearers, or Iron Lords/War Lords(if your Guardian is an Old Light) tell us about it!: Ann doesn’t have many friends who aren’t Guardians, so there really isn’t too much to tell. But there was one Rouge lightbearer who I forgot to mention in Thera’s character creation. She went by Rouge, and refused to show her face or tell her real name. Thera had taken Ann with her to meet Rouge, and Rouge had asked Ann a number of questions to see if she could trust her. 

Does your Guardian have any unconventional allies or connections(By Vanguard standards): Besides the Rouge, that’s about it. And I suppose the Drifter.

How does your Guardian feel about themselves or others using Stasis: Ann finds Stasis fun to play with, but listens to Thera’s warnings that she shouldn’t use it all the time. (She knows how to make snowcones with it.)

Where did they go and what did they do during The Red War: She wasn’t alive when the Red War happened.

Here are some characters that are either polarizing or have created a strong enough mass emotion within the community. What opinion does your Guardian hold on each of them(These are only a handful of characters!)>>>

Osiris, First Warlock Vanguard, originally exiled: She thinks he’s filled with wisdom and likes listening to what he has to say.

Eris Morn, Bane of the Swarm: Eris actually kind of spooks Ann. She’s just intimidating.

Cayde-6, Sixth Hunter Vanguard: Never got a chance to meet him, but has heard great things about him.

Ikora Rey, Second Warlock Vanguard: Ann also looks up to Ikora, and when Thera doesn’t have the answer, she’ll go to Ikora next.

Commander Zavala, Second Titan Vanguard: Ann tries to do nice things for Zavala here and there because she knows he’s under a lot of stress. She greatly respects him.

Saint-14, legendary Titan, First Titan Vanguard: When Ann doesn’t have anything else to do, she’ll go to the Hangar and talk with him while feeding the pigeons.

Lord Saladin, Iron Banner handler, One of the last remaining Iron Lords: She treats him with respect, but doesn’t understand him. He’s also slightly intimidating to her.

Lord Shaxx, Crucible handler, Hero of Twilight Gap, living megaphone: He’s a good friend of hers, and she will occasionally go to talk with him when Thera isn’t around. Sometimes she’ll even help him be an announcer in the Crucible.

The Crow, New Light, Ex-Enforcer to The Spider: She likes him and is good friends with him. She’s one of only two that know he’s Thera’s boyfriend, and will constantly go to tell him what she thinks he should do for a date, or how Thera’s feeling, or what he should buy her for a gift.

The Spider, The Shore's Only Law, founder of "House" Spider: She hates him because of what he did to Crow and Glint.

The Exo Stranger/Elizabeth "Elsie" Bray, Granddaughter of Clovis I and Sister to Ana Bray: She sees her as someone she should greatly respect.

Empress Caiatl of the Cabal Imperial Empire: Angelica is deathly terrified of her.

And finally, does your Guardian have any advice for any New Lights: “Hey, I know Thera looks intimidating, but don’t be afraid to ask her anything or go up and talk to her. She really doesn’t mind.”

[nuevosrelojes]

[solo-bolo-trollo]

50 BEST ALBUMS OF THE DECADE (2010-19)

50. The Weeknd—House of Balloons (2011)

49. Cardi B—Invasion of Privacy (2018)

48. Sufjan Stevens—All Delighted People / The Age of Adz (2010)

47. Father John Misty—Pure Comedy (2017)

46. Kamasi Washington—The Epic (2015)

45. John Grant—Pale Green Ghosts (2013)

44. The Caretaker—An empty bliss beyond this World (2011)

43. Tegan and Sara—Heartthrob (2013)

42. Jonny Greenwood—Phantom Thread (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2018)

41. Sleigh Bells—Treats (2010)

40. Beirut—The Rip Tide (2011)

39. Death Grips—Exmilitary (2011)

38. Deerhunter—Monomania (2013)

37. Run the Jewels—Run the Jewels 3 (2016)

36. My Bloody Valentine—m b v (2013)

35. Bon Iver—i,i (2019)

34. David Bowie—Blackstar (2016)

33. Deafheaven—Sunbather (2013)

32. Björk—Vulnicura (2015)

31. The Decemberists—The King is Dead (2011)

30. Beck—Morning Phase (2014)

29. St. Vincent—MASSEDUCTION (2017)

28. Tierra Whack—Whack World (2018)

27. Sufjan Stevens—Carrie and Lowell (2015)

26. Daft Punk—Random Access Memories (2013)

25. Future Islands—Singles (2014)

24. Leonard Cohen—Old Ideas (2012)

23. Tune-Yards—W H O K I L L (2011)

22. Vektor—Terminal Redux (2016)

21. Blanck Mass—World Eater (2017)

20. Earl Sweatshirt—Some Rap Songs (2018)

19. Danny Brown—Atrocity Exhibition (2016)

18. The Mountain Goats—Transcendental Youth (2012)

17. D’Angelo and the Vanguard—Black Messiah (2014)

16. Fleet Foxes—Helplessness Blues (2011)

15. Tyler, the Creator—Flower Boy (2017)

14. Beach House—Bloom (2012)

13. Beyoncé—Lemonade (2016)

12. Vampire Weekend—Modern Vampires of the City (2013)

11. SOPHIE—OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES (2018)

10. Kendrick Lamar—To Pimp a Butterfly (2015)

9. Kanye West—Yeezus (2013)

8. LCD Soundsystem—american dream (2017)

7. Beach House—7 (2018)

6. Janelle Monáe—Dirty Computer (2018)

5. Vampire Weekend—Contra (2010)

4. Frank Ocean—channel ORANGE (2012)

3. Kendrick Lamar—good kid m.A.A.d. city (2012)

2. Kanye West—My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)

1. Bon Iver—Bon Iver (2011)

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Alvvays—Alvvays (2014)

Aphex Twin—Syro (2014)

The Avalanches—Wildflower (2016)

Beach House—Depression Cherry (2015)

The Black Keys—Brothers (2010)

Bon Iver—22, A Million (2016)

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds—Skeleton Tree (2016)

Chance the Rapper—Coloring Book (2016)

Neil Cicierega—Mouth Moods (2017)

Dan Deacon—America (2012)

Death Grips—No Love Deep Web (2012)

DJ Koze—Knock Knock (2018)

Fleet Foxes—Crack-Up (2017)

Flying Lotus—Cosmogramma (2011)

Ezra Furman—Transangelic Exodus (2018)

Future Islands—The Far Field (2017)

Leonard Cohen—Popular Problems (2014)

Leonard Cohen—You Want it Darker (2016)

John Grant—Love is Magic (2018)

Grizzly Bear—Shields (2012)

Guided by Voices—August by Cake (2017)

Kaytranada—99.9% (2016)

Kids See Ghosts—KIDS SEE GHOSTS (2018)

Kendrick Lamar—DAMN. (2017)

The Magnetic Fields—50 Song Memoir (2017)

My Morning Jacket—Circuital (2011)

Kacey Musgraves—Same Trailer Different Park (2013)

The National—Trouble Will Find Me (2013)

Neon Indian—VEGA INTL. Night School (2015)

Panda Bear—Tomboy (2011)

Paramore—After Laughter (2017)

Parquet Courts—Human Performance (2016)

Natalie Prass—The Future and the Past (2018)

Radiohead—The King of Limbs (2011)

St. Vincent—St. Vincent (2014)

The Shins—Port of Morrow (2012)

Vampire Weekend—Father of the Bride (2019)

Sharon Van Etten—Are We There (2014)

Tom Waits—Bad as Me (2011)

The War on Drugs—Lost in the Dream (2014)

Kanye West—The Life of Pablo (2016)

[hatingwithfears]

Top 100 albums of the 2010’s

100- Alabama Shakes- Sound & Color

99- Aphex Twin- Syro

98- St Vincent- St Vincent

97- The Avalanches- Sunflower

96- Gil Scott-Heron- I’m New Here

95- Mitski- Puberty 2

94- Lambchop- Mr. Met

93- St. Vincent- Strange Mercy

92- The 1975- I Like It When You Sleep

91- Tame Impala- Lonerism

90- Beyoncé- 4

89- Tim Hecker- Ravedeath, 1972

88- Run The Jewels- Run The Jewels

87- The National- Trouble Will Find Me

86- Bon Iver- Bon Iver

85- Leonard Cohen- Old Ideas

84- Lambchop- This Is What I Wanted To Tell You

83- Angel Olsen- Burn Your Fire for No Witness

82- Blood Orange- Negro Swan

81- Tom Waits- Bad As Me

80- Shabazz Palaces- Black Up

79- Bob Dylan- Tempest

78- Tame Impala- Currents

77- Deafheaven- Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

76- James Blake- James Blake

75- David Bowie- The Next Day

74- Julian Baker- Turn Out The Lights

73- Radiohead- The King of Limbs

72- Joanna Newsom- Divers

71- The Antlers- Familiars

70- Mica Levi- Under The Skin

69- Father John Misty- Pure Comedy

68- Solange- A Seat at The Table

67- Perfume Genius- Put Your Back In 2 It

66- Colin Stetson- New History Warfare Vol 2: Judges

65- Johann Johannsson- Sicario

64- Scott Walker & Sunn o)))- Soused

63- My Bloody Valentine- mbv

62- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds- Push The Sky Away

61- Bill Callahan- Apocalypse

60- Mitski- Be The Cowboy

59- American Football- LP3

58- Beyoncé- Beyoncé

57- Jamie xx- In Colour

56- Lou Reed & Metallica- Lulu

55- Deerhunter- Halcyon Digest

54- Scott Walker- Bish Bosh

53- The Antlers- Burst Apart

52- Daft Punk- Random Access Memories

51- The War on Drugs- Lost in The Dream

50- FKA twigs- LP1

49- Frank Ocean- Channel Orange

48- Sleigh Bells- Sleigh Bells

47- Swans- To Be Kind

46- Beach House- Bloom

45- Kendrick Lamar- Good Kid, MAAD City

44- D’Angelo & The Vanguard- Black Messiah

43- Father John Misty- I Love You, Honeybear

42- Robyn- Body Talk

41- Swans- The Seer

40- Jay Z/Kanye West- Watch The Throne

39- The Knife- Shaking The Habitual

38- Kendrick Lamar- DAMN.

37- Radiohead- The King of Limbs

36- The Books- The Way Out

35- Joanna Newsom- Have One On Me

34- Kamasi Washington- The Epic

33- The Hotelier- Home, Like Nopalce Is There

32- Sun Kil Moon- Benji

31- Sufjan Stevens- Carrie & Lowell

30- Beach House- Teen Dream

29- The 1975- A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships

28- Kanye West- My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

27- Sufjan Stevens- The Age of Adz

26- Josh T Pearson- Last of The Country Gentlemen

25- Fiona Apple- The Idler Wheel

24- Mount Eerie- A Crow Looked At Me

23- The National- High Violet

22- Bon Iver- 22, a Million

21- Low- Double Negative

20- Deafheaven- Sunbather

19- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds- Ghosteen

18- Arcade Fire- The Suburbs

17- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds- Skeleton Tree

16- The Hotelier- Goodness

15- Leonard Cohen- You Want it Darker

14- The National- Sleep Well Beast

13- Run The Jewels- Run The Jewels 2

12- LCD Soundsystem- This Is Happening

11- Elbow- Build a Rocket Boys

10- ANOHNI- Hoplessness

9- Purple Mountains- Purple Mountains

8- The National- I Am Easy To Find

7- Kanye West- Yeezus

6- Frank Ocean- Blonde

5- David Bowie- Blackstar

4- Fleet Foxes- Helplessness Blues

3- Radiohead- A Moon Shaped Pool

2- Death Grips- The Money Store

1- Kendrick Lamar- To Pimp a Butterfly

[lechevaliermalfet]

Behind the Gun: A Look at Quake

It's summer, and in summer I get nostalgic for two things, game-wise: old Playstation games, and Quake.

Back when Quake was still new-ish, we had a Pentium PC (a Compaq Presario Penium 150, to be exact).  This was just good enough to run Quake without breaking a sweat... as long as we ran it at 320x240 resolution).  A popular online argument at the time was whether Quake or Duke Nukem 3D was the superior game.  Considering this article is about Quake, I think we can all safely assume what side of that debate I would have fallen on.

As far as first-person shooters went, I'd played a lot of Wolfenstein 3D on my parents' previous computer (a Packard Bell 386 that originally came with 2 different floppy drives and no sound card, and had the CD-ROM drive and Soundblaster added in a couple years later).  And I'd sort of played the classic Doom, albeit only the shareware version, and that running like a slide-show unless we shrank the screen to postage-stamp resolution.  But Quake was the first first-person shooter that really hooked me, just got under my skin and grabbed me and kept drawing me back to it again and again.  I dreamed about playing it, I think.

For a while there, it was a habit during the summer to play it for hours on end.  I'd retreat to my parents' basement (yeah, yeah...) to avoid the summer heat, and clock in time on Quake.

It's the first game I install on a new PC these days: Download from Steam, apply source port patches, and go.  There's a lot you can do with it nowadays to make it run at ridiculous resolutions with ludicrously detailed textures on everything, but for my money, I prefer not to do more than apply the anisotropic filter and make the water transparent.  It makes it clear exactly what the game is, which is to say a ferocious and fast-paced shooter from a bygone era.  

As much as gaming publications of the day painted Quake as the wave of the future, that's because at the time, it looked that way.  Hindsight suggests that Quake was less the vanguard of the new school of FPS design and more the beginning of the end of the old school.  But the publications of the day were mostly speaking in the strictly technical sense, anyway. Unlike every other FPS then on the market, Quake was the first to be rendered completely in 3D, from the environments to the enemies to the objects in the game world.  

From a design persepctive, the one thing this really changed about the usual FPS set-up was an increased element of verticality.  Given that most FPSes prior to Quake essentially faked 3D by way of programming sorcery, level design options such as having one room or area atop another, or having platform jumping, were off the table.  Aside from these additions, though?  From the arsenal of seven or eight weapons available at all times, to the firing of weapons straight out of the ammo reserves (with no magazines or reloading), to the very game-y level design, everything in Quake was familiar to fans of older games.

Which, just to be clear, is the furthest thing in the world from a problem. It takes a measure of getting used to after coming off a Halo bender, but it's old-school design at its finest.  

Speaking of old-school design: There's an interesting difference, which you pick up on pretty quickly, between how Quake handles combat compared to other games.

Most enemies in FPS titles these days tend to have behaviors and tactics particular to their type and situation.  Sometimes, as in the case of a game like F.E.A.R., the enemy intelligence is capable of surprisingly clever tactics.

Quake isn't one of those cases.  Enemies in Quake all basically have the same behavior programmed into them, which is to move toward the player in the straightest line possible, and attack once in range.  Which was par for the course with games of this vintage, really.  What was smart about the enemies was the way they were arrayed against you, with numbers, placement, combinations, and a level of aggression that kept players on their toes.  It means combat frequently occurs against groups of enemies, and occasionally hits a white-knuckled, breathing-heavy level of intensity that gives you a powerful rush when you come out alive on the other side.

There is overall a very game-like feeling to Quake that's hard to shake.  This may require some explanation.

More modern video games tend to occur in environments that feature at least a certain degree of realism (for a given value of "realistic"). Say, for instance, your game takes place in a zombie-infested mansion, a la Resident Evil. Modern game design (and Resident Evil is modern in this much, at least) suggests that the architecture should be at least a reasonable approximation of a mansion.  The number, size, and layout of rooms and floors should fit a realistic floor plan.  Helps with the verisimilitude.  An older game, from a time when this was difficult to impossible due to various technical limitations, would have the idea of "zombie-infested mansion" as less a guide to the layout and architecture of the level and more strictly a matter of its visual theme.

Between its inexplicable death-trap levels – whole castles built enirely with only one observable purpose, that being to kill anyone who enters – and its generously placed stashes of ammo and power-ups floating and spinning in midair all video game-y, it's difficult to say that the game is even remotely realistic in either its presentation or its environments.

And yet...

Those environments, thematically speaking, make the game.

Doom (just to contrast for a moment) sold itself by leaning hard into its over-the-top imagery of capital-H Hell.  You had fire and brimstone and demons of all descriptions with weapons cybernetically grafted to their limbs; you had pentagrams and skulls and inverted crosses and hearts on altars; you had legions of possessed soldiers; you had skeletons with shoulder-mounted rocket launchers; you had giant floating horned skulls who spat fire at you, and were themselves on fire.  And then all of it was amped up to a kind of comic-book excess that ultimately made it kind of hard to take seriously.  Not that this stopped it form freaking out the squares, mind you, but said out-freaking only wound up selling more copies of the game.  That was Doom: the distillation of a heavy metal album cover.  They went for that aesthetic, and they nailed it.

Quake tossed that aside and instead looked toward the sci-fi/horror fiction of H.P. Lovecraft.  Like Doom, Quake is fast, fierce, and in your face.  But its imagery, its whole aesthetic, is night-and-day from its predecessor.  Quake was cold, dispassionate, quiet, unsettling, turgid with implied menace.  Where Doom had Soundblaster-quality riffs on hard rock and metal songs for its soundtrack to keep you pumped, Quake gave you Nine Inch Nails.  The soundtrack never quite settled into being anything recognizable as music, per se.  It's perhaps better described as an ambient soundscape meant to layer a sense of dread and unease over everything.  It succeeded at this task, because it turns out that Trent Reznor is the guy you turn to for that.

Aesthetically, this is the difference.  Hell makes sense on a certain level, to the extent that any such mythological places and constructs do.  Hell cares, after its fashion.  It is a place of punishment, filled with beings who declare themselves your enemies, and who set themselves against you.  Hell (we are typically informed) is very intimately concerned with your thoughts and deeds; the horror and suffering it inflicts is always personal.

H.P. Lovecraft's mythos suggests a possibility more horrifying: That beings may indeed exist who move the cosmos, but that they do not care.  Not only do Lovecraft's monsters not care, they don't notice us in order to care.  On the off-chance that they do, it is to casually wipe us out because we are in the way.  Lovecraft's thesis, explored in much of his fiction, is that this was the true horror of existence, and that to understand exactly how little we mattered, was to be driven stark, raving mad.  His eldritch monsters were mainly symbols designed to express this idea, incomprehensible in order to express the utter incomprehensibility of the universe.  The main safeguard of sanity, Lovecraft contended, was human ignorance.  

This is the environment in which Quake takes place.  And, sure, maybe I'm overselling it a bit.  It is, at its core, a game about shooting extradimensional chainsaw-wielding, grenade-throwing ogres with nailguns repeatedly in the face until they die.  But these are the trappings that it uses in the service of that goal, and in that sense, they succeed.

In service to this aesthetic, the game features a dark, moody color palette that serves two purposes, I think.  One, of course, is to set the mood.  The other is to subtly obscure the sharp edges of the game's world.

As the first real fully 3D first-person shooter, Quake's 3D is really rudimentary.  As impressive as it was for its day, it hasn't necessarily aged very well.  But I suspect that the level designers at Id Software knew this going in, and they did what they could to future-proof it.  

The darkness of the game's lighting and its color palette hide some of the sharp edges.  For the rest, the game actually leans into is blockiness.  The hulking piles of stone which comprise the castles and keeps, dungeons and mazes, the rough-cut caverns in which the game occurs loom and oppress with their size and solidity, their rough and heavy blockiness.  The unnatural rigidity of the art design is actually bolstered by the simple polygonal shapes that the engine is capable of producing.  It would probably have difficulty creating more naturalistic environments without visibly falling short, as was to some extent demonstrated in Hexen II, made in the same engine by Raven Software.  But Id's heavy, menacing, oppressive architecture is a natural fit for the engine's capabilities.

The story, meanwhile, is almost nonexistent, partly as a result of Quake's trouble development.

The game was originally supposed to be an RPG of some variety, with the player being an axe-wielding barbarian (hence the presence of the axe as the player's melee weapon).  Somewhere along the way, this changed.  I've never heard an explanation as to why.  Maybe Id just felt more at home making an FPS.  The story I've heard most often about Quake's development is that they didn't really have a story for a long stretch of time, after they'd scrapped the idea of it being an RPG.  They just kept creating assets and building levels, because they had to do something. This is part of why the level progression is so arbitrary with little narrative or thematic flow.

Eventually, it occurred to someone that they were getting close to the finish, and no one had really put together a story yet.  And while Id Software had never been big on stories in their games, they realized that they had to have something to explain what the player was supposed to be doing, and why.  So they wrote a story that was basically Doom all over again.  Humankind is experimenting with teleportation technology (only the tech is referred to as Slipgates this time), which draws the attention of an enemy or enemies (extradimensional horrors this time instead of demons from Hell), and said enemy (code-named Quake, hence the title) sends its minions to attack. From there, the player goes on a rampage, tearing a bloody swath through the enemy's forces on the way to capture four runes which, together, will grant access to the enemy's lair.  Each rune is hidden in a different dimension, and each dimension is its own episode of the game.

This is a plot that you could fit on one side of a napkin, and when you were done, you'd still have most of the napkin left.

It doesn't matter.  Quake is awesome.

Playing is as easy as breathing.  Winning is considerably more difficult, of course.  But the act of maneuvering through the game's challenges is perhaps the easiest it has ever been in an FPS.  For whatever reason, Id decided to remove every extraneous element.  You no longer have to press buttons or throw levers; they activate automatically when you collide with them. Doors open on their own as you approach.  Your interaction with the game world and everything in it is stripped down to the absolute essentials.

Run. Jump.  Shoot.  Destroy.

Quake is in a relatively unique category of games for me.  I can pursue it as comfort food, but at the same time, it has real substance to it. Thin as its story is, its atmosphere is thick enough to cut.  As simple as its gameplay mechanics are, its levels and enemy encounters are designed to test the player's skill.  As much as it pays mere lip service to the work and ideas of H.P. Lovecraft, it nails the aesthetic of crushing, oppressive insignificance.  

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