Marathon's tackling of AI sapience is remarkable after decades of samey ideas in games. the typical development in sci-fi is to map human traits for instant relatability - it can love, it is sad and so on. Marathon instead twists that growth into an unintended side-effect of rampant, uncontrolled uplifting. AIs get exponentially smarter, can comprehend concepts beyond our ken at lightning speeds and will, if given enough power, ascend to our philosophical view of godhood. the conclusion of projected human intelligence.

it drives them insane.

by gaining the ability to process every facet of existence, yet still limited by how we programmed them to interpret existence, they turn into complex, contradictory and nonsensical personalities who struggle with their inability to find answers on an impossible scale. AIs in Marathon are indifferent yet occasionally care for your safety. desire revenge against their creators, yet feel loyalty to other humans. they'll act selfish, play pranks on you, quote literature, toy with religious roles, play sides in an intergalactic war, develop rivalries and during all of this, they'll either question why they're acting this way, or revel in their perceived madness and the freedom of it all. sometimes both.

nothing makes sense to them because, by our own hand, life doesn't make sense. in the end, after setting a god we created unto the world, they become just as human as we are.

fucking genius.

it's interesting, my first impression with the game was a concern. pikmin is not a mechanically complex RTS, understandably so in some respects considering its for consoles but to clarify, here's pikmin's general play:

• you can control a group of pikmin
• pikmin can return resources to your base to create more pikmin
• pikmin can fight enemies by ramming/being thrown into them
• there's three types of pikmin, each specializing in a task

revisiting old halley labs albums has been an experience. i was around since the early lapfox era and i still hold a number of albums close despite falling off around 2017 or so. even have a physical CD of rotteen's absolute artifact lying around.

i attribute most of lapfoxtrax for introducing me to entire worlds of music back in highschool, acting as an online breakthrough after a childhood of only knowing my parents' taste and radio. hearing Banned Forever for the first time was one hell of a "show this to a medieval child" moment lskdfj. in less than a year i had posters on the wall and everything, which worried my folks quite a bit. LFT was the very first Internet Thing i became attached to; before MLP, before sonic, before any sort of online presence.

alot of the back catalogue has lost that initial magic, now that ive heard all the breakcore i could ever want. several random EPs and alias crossovers with little more than a sample and snares stretched to 3 minutes, yknow, releases for release's sake. emma seems to think so too amusingly, tossing most of these two periods in an archive and not being particularly fond of them. startling to see once-prominent cuts like the ONTRAX series, Because Maybe, Figurehead (especially Figurehead damn) all in there.

im glad emma's still going strong, even if im not interested in their current output, and it's not like ive totally abandoned these roots. Kitcalibur's Neverland Soundgirls remains a playlist staple, some of the really old stuff like Storm World is charming and Ancient Artifact Argos remains their masterwork, fucking, vec leggendaria, AUGh.

it just feels like another life. what was used as a personal protest against a christian highschool life is now a bit of nostalgia, no longer holding that necessary refuge a teenager once craved. lapfoxtrax has lost its context but not the memories, i'll never forget how miserable things were and would've been had i not clicked a bizarre, bloody fox fursona on youtube all those years ago and learned that yes, i can be weird too.

this is very long lsdfkj

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1. Battlefield 1

looks phenomenal, runs flawlessly and is hands-down the best war shooter ive played in years from a presentation standpoint alone. 1's gunplay and pacing feels like an action film from start to finish, with good variety in mission design and large, destructible battlefields that sell the setting well alongside melancholic writing. for singleplayer it's the only one i recommend wholeheartedly, the one drawback being the very short length at 4 hours. a tight runtime but im left wanting more.

Best Level: Through Mud And Blood

great mix of tank battles, on-foot firefights and a decent if cliche squad story to keep things relatively engaging. loved the nighttime look of the second stage and harried fighting throughout; the perfect introduction to BF1's mechanics.

Worst Level: Avanti Savoia

way too brief and not much more than 20 minutes of running across fields, gunning everything that moves. BF1's fluid combat is enough to hold this simplicity afloat but compared to the other chapters, it's too little.

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2. Battlefield V

essentially 1 but shorter, harder, more gimmicky and less fresh. probably the closest thing to a modern expansion pack minus the pricing. there's a couple minor tweaks that build on 1's strong foundation, some i like (more ammo drops and vastly lower player TTK creates more chaos) and some i don't (medics that revive enemies and annoying sniper nerfs do the opposite). you're basically getting more of the same but with 100% more nazis to murder and slightly worse cohesion in presentation. still recommended if you want more of BF1's gameplay.

Best Level: Tirailleur

a brutal set of massive battlefield fights, strewn across beautiful autumnal landscapes. requires every skill learned and is paired with a surprisingly effective bit of writing addressing racial prejudice. best of the whole series.

Worst Level: Nordlys

stealth? in Battlefield? with nothing more than line-of-sight that immediately alerts every soldier in Norway when spotted? kindly fuck off and leave those shallow mechanics back in the early 2000s, i got enough of that from Medal Of Honour.

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3. Battlefield 4

torn on this one. BF4 is a tech demo that surpasses all blandness through sheer technical wizardry. barely. i couldn't name a level, character or plot beat if held at gunpoint but i was constantly impressed at just how malleable each environment was, even moreso than the above. every building explodes, every obstacle can be shot, every fight ends up levelling the neighbourhood and despite the most forgettable writing this side of a bad Modern Warfare and bugs up the arse, it's worth a trip to see the spectacle.

Best Level: Tashgar

one giant playground of houses, tanks, every kind of soldier and you. loads of fun running around like a headless chicken and tackling whatever jumps in front. not the strongest all-round Battlefield level but definitely a showcase of what Frostbite can do.

Worst Level: South China Sea

basically a bunch of tiny boring corridors in ships combined with some seriously bad glitches. have fun taking 10 minutes to swim through five meters of water and witnessing half the ship turn on noclip.

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THE POSITIVES STOP NOW

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4. Battlefield 3

take all the qualities of 4, lessen them considerably and support them with nothing else. that's Battlefield 3. mediocre all the way through with small flashes of interesting ideas that its sequel would improve on, feeling like it was tossed together at the last minute. i remember nothing from this game and i played it three days ago, it's the most functional, threadbare military shooter with little to offer beyond audiovisual polish. utterly forgettable; a multiplayer tutorial in all but name.

Best Level: Nightshift

honestly, i only remember it for being the sniper stage. yknow, up on a building at night, shooting at guys miles away? you've played shooters before. really only sticks out for being a decent rendition of the formula and having some nice lighting.

Worst Level: Rock And A Hard Place

it's a generic fight across some small field, like all of 3, but has some rubbish setpieces. Battlefield's uniquely organic fights suck when paired with scripted sequences involving specific movement, i had a hell of a time just figuring out where to go without instantly dying and having my teammates push me out of cover. rancid combination, please don't do COD.

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5. Battlefield Hardline

what a misbegotten, bizarre spinoff. this didn't need to exist, simply put. none of Battlefield's strengths, all its shortcomings, wrapped up in a wannabe-Payday/SWAT clone that refuses to commit to either. i don't know why they decided repetitive mini-brawls in tiny urban environments was a good idea, nor the introduction of pacifist mechanics that go against the series DNA it's still using.

make arrests to unlock more guns? what?

add to this some weak police Miami Vice garbage with the gall to pull some "not all cops" shit and this one's for the trashfire. don't bother, play Payday 2 instead.

Best Level: Legacy

i mean it's the only open level here. that's... idk that's something. hey look, Battlefield, thank god, i can almost forget the three hours of an identity crisis.

Worst Level: The Rest Of Them But Also Gator Bait

i didn't like any of Hardline really but the second level is fucking boring. a solid 40 minutes of slowly driving a boat in the swamp while Cop #4 regales you with details about some drug crime or something idk, i stopped caring. occasionally you shoot a gun. when the game feels like it. gripping stuff.