[content] re9

[voidcannon] various improvements
[pagex] update packages
[pagex/commons] add custom emoji

content/articles/playground-p3/playground-p3.pagex.js

@@ -64,7 +64,6 @@ export default {
     },
     authors: [testauthorPagex],
     collections: [
-        videogamesCollection.id,
         testCollection.id,
         featuredCollection.id
     ]

content/articles/playground-totk/playground-totk.pagex.js

@@ -54,7 +54,6 @@ export default {
     },
     authors: [testauthorPagex],
     collections: [
-        videogamesCollection.id,
         testCollection.id,
         featuredCollection.id
     ]

content/articles/playground/content.md

@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@ Voidcannon supports ||spoiler|| syntax to hide text until the user manually reve
 ||Spoilers will cover everything within them (i.e :p3smile:) but will not visually adapt their height to them
 (due to the way they're made).||
 
+||Spoilers can also handle wrapping content<br>which is pretty nifty||
+
 ```md
 Voidcannon supports ||spoiler|| syntax to hide text until the user manually reveals it.
 ```

content/articles/playground/playground.pagex.js

@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ export default {
         },
         color: "#D02843"
     },
-    authors: [bignutty, testauthorPagex, placeholder],
+    authors: [placeholder, testauthorPagex, placeholder],
     collections: [
         testCollection.id,
         featuredCollection.id

content/articles/resident-evil-requiem/content.md

@@ -0,0 +1,285 @@
+<voidcannon-cta>
+    <md-icon slot="icon">preview</md-icon>
+    Later parts of this post will contain spoilers for the story, ending, and specific gameplay sections.
+</voidcannon-cta>
+
+## Starting with what's best
+
+The game looks gorgeous and runs flawlessly. Even on my hardware.
+
+<voidcannon-carousel>
+<voidcannon-slide>
+
+![Invested all his Resident Evil 4 wealth into a custom Porsche](assets/carousel/img0.webp)
+
+</voidcannon-slide>
+
+<voidcannon-slide>
+
+![Evil and intimidating horse](assets/carousel/img1.webp)
+
+</voidcannon-slide>
+
+<voidcannon-slide>
+
+![Evil and intimidating curtain](assets/carousel/img2.webp)
+
+</voidcannon-slide>
+
+<voidcannon-slide>
+
+![Sleepover](assets/carousel/img3.webp)
+
+</voidcannon-slide>
+</voidcannon-carousel>
+
+My graphics card (Radeon RX 5500 XT) is the lowest one listed under the "minimum requirements," I'm running on 8 GB of
+RAM, and my CPU is probably below what they recommend. The game still looks great, even on low (not lowest!) settings.
+
+Admittedly, frame generation was necessary to keep the game at or above 60 FPS throughout the entire experience. This
+resulted in occasional Vsync issues, but it didn't degrade the experience for me. The RE Engine continues to be the
+prime example of what a modern game engine *can* be if developers actually care. The game does a great job of utilizing
+its lighting to draw attention to what matters, or simply to create mesmerizing set pieces.
+
+The attention to detail and care really shines throughout the various environments you visit. Each and every material
+looks real, every area has small props lying around, but never to the point where it feels artificial. Something new in
+this game are the dynamic blood splatter decals that can get applied to the environment after an encounter. Some of
+these even manage to stick around for quite some time, which is nice when you play larger sections in one sitting.
+
+<voidcannon-carousel>
+<voidcannon-slide>
+
+![Hospital Hallway](assets/carousel-environments/hallway.webp)
+
+</voidcannon-slide>
+<voidcannon-slide>
+
+![The evil and intimidating horse.](assets/carousel-environments/horse.webp)
+
+</voidcannon-slide>
+<voidcannon-slide>
+
+![Five star hotel room](assets/carousel-environments/hotel.webp)
+
+</voidcannon-slide>
+<voidcannon-slide>
+
+![I didn't want to go in there](assets/carousel-environments/isolationward.webp)
+
+</voidcannon-slide>
+<voidcannon-slide>
+
+![Beige buildings](assets/carousel-environments/raccooncity.webp)
+
+</voidcannon-slide>
+<voidcannon-slide>
+
+![Beige buildings and the sun](assets/carousel-environments/rcwall.webp)
+
+</voidcannon-slide>
+</voidcannon-carousel>
+
+My only critique regarding visuals would be that the Raccoon City half of the game could use a little more color. It
+gets a bit repetitive to spend four hours running through gray and beige buildings.
+
+## Grace gets real
+
+I believe that Grace feels unlike any other character I've played in a Resident Evil game before. She reacts the way
+you'd expect someone to react given the situation. She's not combat-trained; she's an office worker thrown into the most
+horrifying scenario imaginable. The previous two games, Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village, were held back in
+their horror by having a walking quip machine, Ethan Winters, who could not be fazed by anything. That man could lose
+every last limb on his body and still have a "Fuck you" left for whoever was responsible.
+
+![Grace isn't looking too good](./assets/grace_intro.webp)
+
+This is also reflected in her gameplay sections; the area design and item placements are meant to keep the tension high
+while offering stealth as a preferred option. This does work for the opening hours of the game, but by the end of her
+hospital section, I had around 40 spare bullets and more health items than I could count, despite killing every enemy
+in my way.
+
+![Inventory at the end of the game](./assets/grace_inventory.webp)
+
+One unfortunate aspect of Grace's campaign is the complete lack of boss fights. Her gameplay includes one section that
+could be considered a boss encounter, except you don't actually fight anything (more on that later). I suppose the
+intention was to keep her underpowered throughout the entire experience, but I still would have preferred having to
+actually fight back for once.
+
+## Leon gets unreal
+
+Leon's gameplay is essentially the Resident Evil 4 remake on crack.
+
+I actually ended up having the complete opposite problem to Grace's campaign by the end: I had an inventory full of
+crafting supplies, while health remained a scarce resource. A look at my inventory right before heading to the final
+boss pretty much says everything (click to reveal):
+
+||![Leon's inventory management skills](assets/leon_inventory.webp)||
+
+Even though the available selection of guns is almost identical to the Resident Evil 4 remake, I found that the enemy
+variety made the pistol and rifle the right answers most of the time. I rarely used grenades, as the environments seldom
+presented good opportunities for them. The few sections that did ended up so hectic that I'd grab my trusty shotgun
+instead of trying to line everyone up for a grenade strike.
+
+I was also pretty consistently low on credits for the supply crate, despite my continued strategy of killing anything
+that moves. It is a little unfortunate that, at least during the campaign, you only get access to one alternative
+pistol.
+
+## All together now!
+
+I had a great time with the dual-protagonist campaign. Especially in the first large section of the game, being able to
+experience the same area from two play styles is a lot of fun.
+
+I do wish they had balanced the lengths of each section better. The "meat" of the game is one large section where you
+play as Grace for two to three hours, and another where you play as Leon for three to four hours. At the beginning and
+end of these, the game quickly cuts between the two perspectives to show you what was happening "in the meantime" or
+somewhere else.
+
+This works from a storytelling perspective, but it results in neither gameplay style really being able to shine outside
+its "dedicated" large section. Some of the changes last for maybe 10 minutes before switching back to the character
+you were playing as previously. I'd love to see more of this style of gameplay in the future, though (maybe even a
+proper Resident Evil 6 reimagining that combines the best parts into one cohesive campaign).
+
+<voidcannon-cta type="primary">
+    <md-icon slot="icon">preview</md-icon>
+    From here on out I'll focus on the story and specific sections of gameplay.<br>If you haven't played the game I'd recommend you stop reading.
+</voidcannon-cta>
+
+## Game Design (0/3)
+
+One major gripe I have with the game is the overreliance on "do/get three things."
+
+During my playthrough, I can remember encountering all of these:
+
+- Collect three quartz blocks
+- Obtain three security clearances
+- Get three substances to analyze (Crafting Recipes)
+- Find and open three safes
+- Gather three spark plugs
+- Turn on three generators
+- Find three detonator parts
+- Find and open ~~four~~ three containers (One was already open)
+
+No matter what our protagonist(s) have to do, it's three or nothing. There are a few exceptions where an item has two (
+
+2) uses or you have to do two things, but most of your playtime is spent watching (0/3) turn into ~~(3/3)~~.
+
+Three is a nice middle ground between "this could have just been a linear section" and "this is too much, I'm getting
+tired," but once everything relies on the rule of three, it starts to feel repetitive and artificial.
+
+In addition to everything requiring you to do three of something, the game also heavily suffers from "Resident Evil
+logic", meaning the protagonists often act unreasonably given the situation. The most egregious example of this is the
+third Puzzle Box, which is lacking its Sun, Moon, and Star icons. Every other puzzle box in the hospital, two of which
+we have already encountered and solved, has Braille text above or on all the buttons. However, for Plot Reasons, we have
+to go get Emily to decipher them. I don't have high demands for the logic behind puzzles, but they really could have
+tried to find another reason to bring Emily here instead of making Grace inexplicably incapable of solving the puzzle
+box through trial and error.
+
+One variant I was able to come up with would've been hiding the solution to the puzzle box in a longer piece of text in
+Braille, perhaps even across several documents. That would still require Grace to go get help from Emily, after which
+she obviously couldn't leave her alone in the now-open cell.
+
+## Linear excitement during the latter half
+
+This is an issue that all the recent Resident Evil titles have had: the game gets way more linear the further you
+progress.
+
+They did a great job of balancing open-exploration sections and linear progression with short, fun sections to blow off
+steam in between.
+
+![Unlike Metroid Prime, Resident Evil Requiem knows how to handle a motorcycle section.](assets/leon_motorcycle.webp)
+
+However, the RPD, and everything after it for that matter, marks a turning point. Playing these sections felt like the
+game tried to show me a lot of cool things while also running out of time.
+
+![Welcome back](assets/leon_rpd.webp)
+
+The RPD itself consists of the following steps:
+
+1. Get to the Library to pick up a key item
+2. Use the key item to open up a door
+3. Watch a cutscene and play a short stealth section
+4. Run away
+5. Leave the RPD
+
+There are two additional things you can do: a short scavenger hunt and unlocking a briefcase. I believe the area has two
+other enemies you can defeat for some credits. That's it.
+
+I love the idea of revisiting old locations like this, but it feels like a wasted opportunity to have you spend barely
+20 minutes in the area, only to leave and fight two boss fights basically back-to-back. The fact that they brought back
+Mr. X might at first seem like a really cool twist; that is, until you realize he's in the game for 10 minutes tops. 20
+if you spend more time looking around. It doesn't help that not even 20 minutes later, you immediately run into the next
+boss encounter that feels like another "look who we brought back :pointpeak:" moment. I think there were a lot of cool
+ideas that could have been executed by revisiting Raccoon City, but the way Requiem handles it feels like a wasted
+opportunity.
+
+I suppose this is what I get for asking to have fewer "do three things" moments. 🥴
+
+The sections post-RPD struggle the most with their pacing. I'm not sure if the game developers had a self-imposed time
+limit for how long the game should play, or if they had too many last minute ideas. The final two to three hours of the
+game boil down to you being rushed from set piece to set piece, with very little to no downtime.
+
+## Last but not least: The Plot
+
+The story is, again, typical for a Resident Evil game. It starts out with an intriguing premise, then completely loses
+the plot in its final hours.
+
+![Victor Gideon introduces himself](assets/plot_gideon.webp)
+
+Victor Gideon makes for an interesting antagonist. He's seemingly spent years tracking Grace down, planning, and
+researching the events that will transpire throughout the game. Unfortunately, Gideon just... doesn't do a lot
+throughout the campaign.
+
+- He kidnaps Grace and subdues Leon, but doesn't do anything of note to either of them.
+- He lets both of them escape from the hospital, only to conveniently pick Grace back up (I don't even want to get into
+  how weird the motivation for Grace post-hospital is).
+- He's flown out to Raccoon City with The True Antagonist and Grace?
+- ???
+- 🏍🏍🏍🏍
+- ???
+- Shows up to be the final boss
+- Dies
+
+I can see a lot of potential given the character and setup, but the game seems content with keeping Gideon as a prop
+that it can conveniently dispose of in the end.
+
+The same thing goes for The True Antagonist, Zalbert Zesker, who the game insists on calling Zeno or just Z.
+
+![Zalbert Zesker](assets/plot_zesker.webp)
+
+His entire role in the game is to be the one who supposedly funded this entire operation. He gets one evil monologue at
+the end and then gets killed off. The plot would progress nearly identically to how it does in the final game if he
+wasn't here or wasn't Wesker. Gideon, being an ex-Umbrella researcher, at least has some sort of character motivation to
+continue his mission.
+
+The only aspect of the story I genuinely disliked was when Leon S. Kennedy starts shooting at human soldiers who storm
+two rooms in a secret facility, only for them to never show up again. Especially when you consider that the second,
+larger room can be taken out by releasing a Licker from its tube with a well-placed shot. The weirdest part was that
+their presence in the game is once again no longer than 10 minutes at most. The only story reason I could come up with
+is that they flew in with Gideon and Wesker on the helicopter, and that's why we only ever run into two teams? It makes
+for an awkward moment in an otherwise great finale.
+
+All of this is not meant to imply that I disliked the story. I had a great time going in blind and experiencing the
+narrative for the first time. This is meant to be taken as a "what could have been," not "look how they
+butchered my boy."
+
+## Requiem.
+
+All in all, Resident Evil Requiem is an amazing game. The plot might have holes and the gameplay can feel a little samey
+at times, but the overall experience was never boring. Quite the opposite, actually. I felt that throughout most of my
+journey, the gameplay was packed so tightly that twenty minutes felt like an hour. Not because it dragged on for too
+long, but because I couldn't wrap my mind around all the things happening back-to-back.
+
+I **really** hope that RE9 ends up getting a Mercenaries mode; the gameplay as Leon is more refined than ever before and
+is
+a joy to play. The few sections where they funnel zombies in and just let you do your thing with a giant stockpile of
+ammunition or heavy weaponry are where the gameplay really shines.
+
+This game also had the objectively worst and most terrifying objective notification I have received in a long time. (
+Yes, I instinctively threw a grenade).
+
+> **Arachnophobia warning** for those who are sensitive to creepy crawlies.
+
+||![The Giant Enemy Spider](assets/spider.webp)||
+
+I think Resident Evil Requiem is a must-play for all fans of horror and action. I'm really excited to discover what
+places and characters CAPCOM will visit in the 10th entry to the series. Unless they somehow bring back Ethan Winters
+for his third game, that is.

content/articles/resident-evil-requiem/resident-evil-requiem.pagex.js

@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+import {
+    VoidcannonHeaderLayoutType,
+    VoidcannonHeaderType,
+    VoidcannonContentType
+} from "voidcannon";
+
+import bignuttyPagex from "../../authors/bignutty.pagex.js";
+
+import videogamesCollection from "../../collections/videogames.pagex.js";
+
+import {PagexResourceTransformer} from "pagex";
+import {ThemeVariants} from "pagex_commons";
+
+export default {
+    type: VoidcannonContentType.ARTICLE,
+    content: {
+        _transform: PagexResourceTransformer.MARKDOWN,
+        path: "./content.md"
+    },
+    id: "resident-evil-requiem",
+    title: "Thoughts on Resident Evil Requiem",
+    abstract: "My favourite horror game of 2026. I didn't think they could come up with something worse than the fetus from Village.",
+    author_abstract: "Professional scaredy cat",
+    created_at: 1773102988178,
+    theme: {
+        partial: true,
+        colors: {
+            light: "#a30e0e",
+            dark: "#a30e0e",
+        },
+        variant: ThemeVariants.VIBRANT,
+    },
+    header: {
+        type: VoidcannonHeaderType.IMMERSIVE,
+        layout: VoidcannonHeaderLayoutType.LOGO_LEFT,
+        position: "0% 100%",
+        base: {
+            _transform: PagexResourceTransformer.MEDIA,
+            path: "./assets/header/background_re9.webp"
+        },
+        logo: {
+            _transform: PagexResourceTransformer.MEDIA,
+            path: "./assets/header/logo_re9.webp"
+        },
+        immersive_content: {
+            right: {
+                outer: {
+                    _transform: PagexResourceTransformer.MEDIA,
+                    path: "./assets/header/immersive_outer_re9.webp"
+                },
+                inner: {
+                    _transform: PagexResourceTransformer.MEDIA,
+                    path: "./assets/header/immersive_inner_re9.webp"
+                },
+                base: {
+                    _transform: PagexResourceTransformer.MEDIA,
+                    path: "./assets/header/immersive_full_re9.webp"
+                }
+            }
+        },
+        color: "#a30e0e"
+    },
+    authors: [bignuttyPagex],
+    collections: [
+        videogamesCollection.id,
+    ]
+}

content/collections/videogames.pagex.js

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ export default {
     type: VoidcannonContentType.COLLECTION,
     id: "videogames",
     name: "Video Games",
-    description: "Video Game Articles",
+    description: "I like playing video games. I also care a lot about game design and like sharing my thoughts about games that I've played.",
     color: VoidcannonCollectionColor.RED_VIBRANT,
     icon: {
         type: VoidcannonCollectionIconType.ICON,