#empty shell

[richs-pics]

Snail-scape

[no7er]

Hollow World Digital artwork by me, 2024

[madc0w]

Listen/purchase: Empty Shell by Mental Map

[111lustforlife]

you will remove yourself, piece by piece, to fit someone else's puzzle, until there's nothing left.

until you will find an empty shell staring back at you in the mirror.

[downfalldestiny]

Empty thoughts 🖤 !.

[lone-sk]

Investing the $50 in my steam wallet into some weird and quirky indie titles, very excited

[gothylizzie]

empty shell .

[neevedicampelli]

Deadwood

I think I must have died And just never realised Leaving a dead body behind I’m truly out of my mind I’m already dead inside I simply watch as time passes by As I hide From the great eye A tooth for a tooth An eye for an eye You can have both for free Should the pain make me feel less hollow inside I’m just an empty shell Stuck in this never-ending hell Dreaming I had wings Dreaming of so many…

[harshr]

Thanks to White Light / White Heat for including "Seek Comfort" in their weekly picks.

[hajdara]

[notmuchtoconceal]

Tell me a bunch a things that ain't true.

Only thing ur fuckin good for.

[no-more-hide]

Father was a tough guy. He wanted me to be just as hard. He took me with him to fishing and hunting. Even as a teenager, I sat with my father and his friends on the loading area of the pickup truck and drank the beer from the can. Later, the bottle with the hard things also circled. If they went hunting or fishing, they also took me to the whorehouse. At first I was just watching, sometimes one of the hookers was allowed to jerk my penis. As a gift for my sixteenth birthday, father paid for a noble hooker who fucked me in a MotelRoom. From then on, I found whores in many greasy brothels where my father took me. Later, I changed the women, as I used to change the hookers. The tender girl inside me has withdrawn more and more intimidated the more the guy inflated himself. But at some point the lie bursts. The tough guy falls off like an empty shell, the little girl discovers tenderness, friendship and love. And is blooming.

[inthewindtunnel]

Mental Map

Empty Shell

[xboxissues]

New Xbox Games for July 22 to July 26 2024

[backlogburner]

Reflection - EMPTY SHELL

As of writing, I've put an hour into EMPTY SHELL. Over the course of this period, I have cleared the first "level" and have made several attempts at the second. It's unlikely I'll ever make it past the second level, as my patience for the game's unforgiving design is spent. And while such a design paradigm is not unwelcome, it must be complemented by other qualities that compel me to keep fighting for the victory state.

The game is certainly visually atmospheric, but the audio design leaves much to be desired. The CRT monitor effect that permeates the audiovisual experience mutes and flattens all SFX drastically, which created a barrier for immersing myself in the environment. No suspense was ever felt, therefor investment in the player character was never experienced. This combined with the methodical approach demanded by the game lended itself to an overall unengaging experience.

Poor audiovisual design can however often be salvaged by good game feel, something I also felt was lacking. Gunplay was moderately satisfying, along with sprinting and dodging. Melee combat came with some frustrations, but the biggest gripe is the UI and menu navigation design. A brief monitor effect playing whenever opening the inventory or map was a source of major frustration for every play session. This was accompanied with awkward keybindings that were ill-suited the conventional WASD-Mouse hand placements.

Ultimately, these factors has compelled me to shelve the game for now. It would take a recommendation from a respected party for me to re-engage with the game, which doesn't seem all to likely given the relatively lacking media attention regarding the game. While the game delivered on what I anticipated for my first impressions, it failed to deliver an experience I was willing to engage with. But with all that said and done, another game may be struck from the backlog.

[torn2]

Beneath the skin, Cutting up the Dead, Morality

First don’t bother calling the police.

Second- this isn’t just clickbait.

Third: It’ll be part one

Have you ever stuck a pin in someone, a needle, a knife, not knife crime, I’m not talking criminal scary stuff, I’m talking about the other scary stuff. Sickness.

There are three main sides of the human body; it is amazing, it is gross and it is terrifying.

The first time I stood with a scalpel in my hand over a human being, I didn’t know whether to puke, faint or scream. But one thing I could not do was break the skin. It would take a leap of brain neurons, a deep breath and do it. And slowly we went around our table to each take the emotional, moral plunge. Slowly laying down a hand and peeling back the Cadaver. It was an art that I had never conceived. The outlining, the moving, the gentleness, the detail.

People do it for a job, making Cadavers into finished, clear specimens from which to learn anatomy.

I never learnt anatomy very well, but I realised how awesome, strong and fit for purpose the human body is. It is amazing and awe inspiring when everything has its own place. The immense jigsaw, that once disturbed is ridiculously hard to put back together again. I became good at dissecting and presenting.

This was decades ago. When I drew it all out, piece by piece. By that Halloween of 2001 mostly alone in a room full of 90 ish dead people on metal tables. In a basement with high up windows, bright internal fluorescent lights and heard kids walking past with the early sunset giggling. I wasn’t scared. These Cadavers wouldn’t hurt me. They were (very) dead, but also very human. Kind, thoughtful people who gave their bodies to medical research. People with families, friends, lives, loves. People who were still loved. The dead didn’t scare me. The dead don’t really scare me. I have had many friends die, and the only thing that scares me with its ferocity is my grief.

I can look in the eyes of someone who has died and see an empty pool, a nothingness. It is an intensely rewarding thing to be able to wash the newly dead, leave the body pristine for the family.

This Halloween I helped give ideas for a party for little kids. It’s always been not a time of scary pumpkins (because I’m better at cutting up fine things than large objects… slip, cut, drip, ‘different’ scary pumpkin). But since then it’s been a time of remembering those I love, who have died. And that’s been in the double digits for too long.

Then it reminds me again why we are so interesting. So amazingly made with all our organs like Jenga.

And no, I’m not a surgeon, I stayed with cutting up dead bodies. It is one of the most remarkable pieces of art I’ve ever participated in.