Spoiler Warning: Now With Playlist!

By Shamus Posted Monday Oct 8, 2012

Filed under: Notices 68 comments

So I finally got around to updating the Spoiler Warning page this weekend. The Half-Life 2 season should be complete, the Modern Warfare episodes are listed, the Mass Effect 3 episodes have been updated, and I’m setting the Mass Effect 1 season to point to the new episodes. I was going to link the new episodes to the old, but then I realized I’d have to do the same thing for the next 50 or so remaining Viddler orphans. After carefully reviewing my options, I have decided screw that.

Also, I’ve added YouTube playlists for Alan Wake, Half-Life 2, Deus Ex, Assassin’s Creed 2, and Fallout New Vegas.

So we’ve got that going for us.

So… what else? I hate to post these stupid “the site has been updated” posts without saying something worthy of discussion. It feels like using the PA system to let everyone know you did the dishes. I suppose I could mention that I have a super-gigantic post I’m trying to write about Guild Wars 2. I’m not sure when it will be done, but here is a bit of foreshadowing.

 


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68 thoughts on “Spoiler Warning: Now With Playlist!

  1. X2Eliah says:

    Welp. Any news on when Josh’s computer gets fixed and we can look toward the next episodes?

  2. Mari says:

    Man every single time I do the dishes I wander around the house and inform every single member of the household. Just in case they want to applaud or thank me or something. That PA idea sounds much easier. Maybe I should get a bullhorn or something.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Or a washing machine that beeps when it finishes.Its great when you have one turned on in the middle of the night,when everyone is asleep.

      1. Mari says:

        My washer is high tech. It doesn’t just beep, it plays a whole tune. I call it my “laundry ringtone.” And yes, I have woken up the hubs in the middle of the night with the laundry ringtone a time or two.

        1. ehlijen says:

          Can you set it to ride of the valkyries?
          “I love the smell of clean dishes in the morning!”

  3. Suggestion: Add a note to Season 2 and 3 to say these videos are on Viddler and unaccessible and will be eventually added to YouTube. (Which I presume they will be?) Just so people know.

    1. Volfram says:

      I approve this message.

  4. Alan says:

    “It feels like using the PA system to let everyone know you did the dishes.”

    You can do that? I need to get a PA system for my house.

    Wait, on second thought, isn’t that the entire point of Twitter?

    1. Bryan says:

      All of twitter, and 60% of facebook…

      The other 40% of facebook is to tell everyone you’re doing something in some stupid game (*cough*farmville*cough*) that they never want to actually look at, let alone use…

      What, me, cynical? :-P

      1. StashAugustine says:

        Cynical? That would be like suggesting I’m sarcastic.

        1. anaphysik says:

          Oh, sure you’re not sarcastic.

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            Great comment.I want to read it twice.I want to read it 4 times.Check that,Ill read that comment 5 times.

            1. anaphysik says:

              Wow, what praise!

  5. Sagretti says:

    I hope that post is the long awaited “Guild Wars 2 Dungeons” post, going by the link. I also hope you remember to mention that you are the worst dungeon boss ever and cheat incessantly.

    1. Kavonde says:

      I hope it’s the Dungeon Post. The first thing I said after finishing AC was, “I can’t wait to see Shamus’ take on this.” God, what a horrible, frustrating experience. The other dungeons aren’t as bad, but that’s like saying a broken leg isn’t as bad as disembowelment.

  6. anaphysik says:

    All you need to do is put a link to the old post whenever you post your Rerun post. (Although it’d be nice to also put a link to the new post in the old post, that’s more tedious and has less utility).

    That way, it’s only 8 links to add right now, and then one every new post. Plus, from then on you’re not editing old posts, just adding a little line to the post as you’re writing it. No more effort than linking the obscure song one of you (Rutskarn) sang, in some vain attempt to cleanse the viewers ears of the terror experienced during the episode.

  7. Infinitron says:

    Remember that Overstrike/Fuse game vandalism fiasco I posted about? Well the developers have admitted it was due to “focus groups”. What a surprise.

    1. newdarkcloud says:

      I, Brandon, King of the World, have declared it legal to charge and punish focus groups for the crime of vandalism.

      1. Even says:

        I think I’d rather charge and punish those who thought up these focus groups and figured they’re the people they should cater to.

        1. Sumanai (Asimech) says:

          I wonder how long it takes before developers and publishers, both in game circles and in hardware, realise that blindly following focus groups means they’re bad designers.

          1. Bryan says:

            About as long as it takes car manufacturers to figure it out.

            I.e., never, for most of them. :-(

    2. Torsten says:

      So they have a focus group of 12-year olds, playing on PS3 and Xbox, on a game that is going to get a mature audience rating at best case, and they changed the game based on their feedback.

  8. krellen says:

    Man, the numbers on my blog hits page don’t even look real any more. I feel like I should have been a bit more verbose now.

    1. Mari says:

      No, you were perfect. And yes, I’m commenting about your blog here instead of on your blog because…I’m a loser. Anyway, I really liked what you had to say. Of course, I’m coming at it from playing GW2 obsessively yet never having set foot inside a dungeon. And I’m less inclined than ever to do so. It seems like a lot of effort to find four other random people that want to go in there with me only to get my butt kicked all over the map by the strange difficulty scaling, end up sinking more money into it than I get out of it, and probably get yelled at for sucking at the game by strangers to boot.

      1. krellen says:

        I’m fortunate in that my “four random people” get to be Josh, Shamus, and other random commenters from here.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          “I'm fortunate in that my “four random people”Âť get to be Josh, Shamus, and other random commenters from here.”

          No wonder your hitbox for those things was bugged.Next time try it without the bug magnet in your group.

          1. Lovecrafter says:

            Well to be fair, that last screenshot with the floating rock only had Mumbles in it. None of the others were of the SW crew, so I assume the game is still just very buggy.

  9. Atheos says:

    Everything Krellen mentioned on his blog is absolutely correct. GW2, while awesome overall, has the WORST dungeon design and balancing I’ve ever come across. It doesn’t much matter which dungeon you delve, they’re all excessively bogged down with cheap tricks and tactics, unnecessarily difficult and, worst of all, barely rewarding. You can make better money, buy better gear and earn better XP elsewhere without a fraction of the hassle.

    His example, while something of an exception, is still perfectly indicative of many of the game’s problems: Cheap, often flawed tactics. You CANNOT effectively destroy the burrows, as such, you’re flooded with the little monsters until you and everyone else dies. Repeatedly. The boss fights are no better. Battles of attrition, where you win simply by throwing bodies at the boss, or better yet, BOULDERS, are not fun.

    You can overcome these obstacles, with particular personal and party builds, but not only is this countermand to the message of freedom the game presents for the first 30 levels, there’s also absolutely no indication of such restrictive systems. PvE, WvW and PvP are all built upon the concept of flexibility. Dungeons have one right way or you DIE.

    Rather reminds me of a song…

    1. anaphysik says:

      Speaking of video games, songs, and character death…:
      http://filkertom-itom.blogspot.com/2007/07/048-dead-again.html

      1. Atheos says:

        I was thinking of “You Died” by Miracle of Sound, but that works too.

        1. StashAugustine says:

          So did I, and I haven’t even heard that particular song. (Might be that I’m currently jamming out to Mind of the Bat while waiting for Xcom to unlock.)

    2. Ateius says:

      I recognize that frustration, I really do. I felt exactly the same way in my first (disastrous) attempt at AC. But I went back, after much coaxing from my friends, and I did it with a group of guildies rather than a pick-up group. We co-ordinated, we planned, and we won (with heavy losses). We’ve gotten better since, and these days actually hit up AC specifically for money if we’re running low (anywhere from 50s-1g depending on the loot gods, and that’s after repair costs). Once you adjust to the difficulty spike, it’s not so bad. Honest. Bring people you know and co-ordinate your moves. Focus fire. If possible, use Vent or another VOIP program.

      Dungeons are an order of magnitude more difficult than the base game, and it’s a shocking transition – especially since they put Ascalon Catacombs first instead of the shorter and much easier Caduceus’ Manor. But there isn’t just one way to beat them. There’s less flexibility than normal PvE, but it isn’t all gone. You just need good group coordination and a solid knowledge of your class and abilities.

      Here’s some tips it took me several painful lessons to learn:

      1) Always have a ranged weapon. Enemies hit hard, especially bosses. You can not stand toe-to-toe with them in melee. If you start taking heavy damage, dodge away and switch to your ranged weapon to keep up the damage until you can heal. Related: Never stop to heal while in melee unless you can stun them or something first.

      2) Control is your friend. Immobilize, stun, daze, cripple, fear. Anything that helps to control or prevent enemy movement makes the battle that much more weighted in your favour. Timing stuns/dazes/knockdowns to interrupt their big attacks (which are telegraphed just like in normal PvE) can sometimes be the crucial difference between victory and another jog back from the waypoint.

      3) Do dungeons with people you know. I cannot stress this enough. Random pick-up groups are the worst way to do dungeons. You need people you know, people you can trust to wait and plan rather than run ahead and aggro everything. Even if you’re not in a guild, drag four friends together.

      4) Communication is key. As I said above, VOIP is best, but party chat can suffice. Make sure everyone knows the plan before each pull. Ctrl+T will designate a target for the party; every else can then press T to instantly target it. Great for focused fire.

      I don’t know what to tell you about Gravelings, though. They’re not elites like the rest of the dungeon, just normal mobs. Never had an issue with them, not even that first disastrous attempt. Hitbox on their burrow is really annoying, but AoEs will kill it just fine.

      * The above reflects experience in “Story Mode” dungeon. So far I have made one abortive foray into an “explorable” dungeon and decided not to go back until I have maxed-out everything to help me.

      1. krellen says:

        The tale related on my blog is about Explorable mode, not Story mode.

        1. Even says:

          Well I’d think 2, 3 and 4 still stand, but to be fair that’s pretty much the standard fare for most MMO dungeon instances that I’ve ever played.

          For this game, 1 is kinda arguable, at least when witnessing what a properly built Guardian can do with the rest of the team supporting. There’s definitely room for melee. The challenge as I perceive it would only be in learning how to make it work for your party composition.

          1. Lovecrafter says:

            There is room for melee, but you should carry a spare ranged weapon just in case. For instance: the second major boss in Twilight Arbor’s story mode, Brangoire, will quickly kill anyone not constantly circle-strafing or otherwise moving around the arena. Melee characters would have to stand still for too long and get hit by the poison blasts, and since poison reduces the amount you heal… Well, it’s not a pretty sight.

          2. Ateius says:

            Oh no, I didn’t mean only use ranged weapons. I’m primarily melee myself; the higher damage output makes it well worth it. I meant always have a ranged weapon handy so if you do have to dodge out of melee you can still contribute.

          3. krellen says:

            2 is largely not applicable. Most dungeon bosses are “Unshakable”, which gives them stacks of CC-blocking every time they are CC’d, and those stacks increase each time.

            1. Ateius says:

              Cripple still works just fine – unshakeable only prevents stuns and knockdowns. Cripple + ranged kiting is the easiest way to deal with any melee-focused bosses, though it takes a while (as ranged damage isn’t as high as melee) and is kind of boring. Also, although unshakeable makes it impossible to keep a boss stunned, it still causes an interrupt before their anti-CC stacks go up.

              You can also try layering on debuffs such as blind, weakness and vulnerability to cut down their damage output and defense – unshakeable won’t stop those either, and they can really turn the tide of a fight.

              Outside of proper bosses, the full suite of control abilities make minibosses and “regular” (elite) enemies much easier to deal with.

              1. Even says:

                What he said.

              2. krellen says:

                Unshakable does partially negate blindness, actually.

                1. Ateius says:

                  Partially effective is still effective. :P

        2. Ateius says:

          Explorable is a nightmare and, as I mentioned, I’m not going near the thing until I’ve fully blinged out everything I can bling out.

      2. Daemian Lucifer says:

        But wasnt the whole point of krellen’s story that while almost everything else in the game allows you to pick whatever you want and group with any random dude(dette) you meet,dungeons force you to do the exact opposite of that,and pick exact builds and people you know.So while it may be possible,profitable,and even fun after a while,its completely the opposite experience from the rest of the game.

        1. Wedge says:

          I guess I have to say…what’s wrong with that? It’s nice for MMO veterans and people who really like a challenge that there’s a face-punchingly difficult part of the game available. The only thing that bothers me is, to echo someone else’s complaint, that there doesn’t seem to be anything *between* the fairly easy and straightforward PvE and the holyfuck dungeons.

          1. Ateius says:

            Given my brief experience with explorable dungeons, I’m tempted to say the story dungeons are the happy medium between the PvE and the face-melting.

          2. krellen says:

            What’s wrong with it is that games should not try to be everything to everyone. You don’t NEED to have “hardcore” modes of gameplay in every single game, any more than you need to have “easy” modes in every game. Some games are for those looking for extreme challenges, some games are for those looking for something gentler. Having both in a single game will only disappoint both audiences.

        2. Ateius says:

          You don’t need exact builds, though, that’s my point. I’ve seen people using wildly different builds than me and be just as effective – sometimes more so. Heck, I’ve seen people go pure melee and succeed, though they’re far more skilled and have much better reaction times than I do.

          You also don’t, strictly speaking, need to go in with people you know. I only suggest it because doing so will remove the random factor of getting one or two idiots who won’t listen to a plan of attack or slow down before pulling a dozen enemies at once. It’s possible to run a dungeon with a PUG and do just fine, but your asshat potential spikes alarmingly.

          Dungeons are a sudden and shocking difference from the rest of the game, yes, but not because you need WoW-like levels of exact, specific builds and party composition. It’s different and harder just because the enemies are many times tougher than on the overworld and you can’t solo four at once anymore.

          * Again, disclaimer: Talking about story mode dungeons. Explorable could very well be that way, haven’t tried it more than once.

          1. Even says:

            That pretty much fits my experience with the story mode dungeons. My most recent run into AC Story mode with 2 medium and 3 light armor classes pretty much broke any remaining illusions that you’d have to have specific builds or compositions in there. While a more focused group can be more efficient, it really boils down to how well your teammates can play their classes and work as a team.

  10. NihilCredo says:

    Shamus, I see on Twitter that you’re understandably excited about X-COM, but what are your plans for the other October 9th release, Dishonored?

    I fully expected that it would have been impossible to get you to shut up about the love-child of Deus Ex, Thief and Half-Life 2 – yet I don’t see it even mentioned anywhere!

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Xcom predates all of those however.

      1. Sort of. It depends on how wedded to the franchise one is, since X-Com could have “ended” an installment or two back for some people.

    2. AJ_Wings says:

      Frankly, I would love to see them do Metro 2033. Short, varied, fun and I think it can spark interesting discussion between the crew. Plus the enemy AI is dumb as bricks so wacky hilarity from Josh’s is expected.

      Also Alpha Protocol because Alpha Protocol rules

  11. meyerkev says:

    (Keeping in mind that I’ve only done story yet, and it sounds like you’re mostly talking about Explore here)

    So I gotta admit that your story seems to have been somewhat different than mine, and you basically covered it in the “Elementalist Rain of Death” thing.

    NPC dude: “Blah Blah Gravelings Blah Blah”
    Shellshocked Vet on their 5th try of the dungeon after 4 fails: “[I very clearly have Tourretes Syndrome in my fingers]”
    Me: “Ok, this is a big deal” *throws out Meteor Shower, Glyph of Storms, Radiation Field, Small Fire Elemental, Volcano, and Awesome Asura Golem of Death*

    (3 Seconds pass as the Graveling Burrow more or less disintegrates, and the Golem and Elemental mop up the 2 Gravelings before we even touch them)

    Shellshocked Vet: “WTF?”
    Me: “Guys, can we sit here for a minute while my cooldowns do their thing?”

    (and this is probably where we would have failed had there been more than 1 because all of those (except Volcano) are 30-240 second cooldowns)

    /Also, having the shellshocked vet was really nice, because it meant that we never did anything without knowing where ambushes were and similar.

    1. GM says:

      I liked this story,please continue

      1. meyerkev says:

        There’s not much to tell. The only other interesting bits were:

        1) After the shellshocked vet lost connection right before the second fight (and right after we had waited for 10 minutes while she went AFK), I got bored, and tried dualing one of the legendary enemies with our ranger. It didn’t work, but we didn’t die either before the rest of the team piled on about 2 minutes later, and when the shellshocked vet got back, we had already beaten it.
        2) The Lovers fight was actually the quickest of the 3 sub-bosses, mostly because I accidentally pulled the guy’s aggro by myself, hopped up into the far corner of the room, and then survived for a full 45 seconds (no idea how) while the other 4 knocked half the health off the girl.

        /I’m actually coming to the impression that 1) A scared Elementalist with full cooldowns is the most dangerous enemy to have. 2) An Elementalist will actually do better against 4 or 5 normal PvE mobs than 1, just because they have no qualms about wasting a 4 minute cooldown on 5 or 6 enemies who WILL kill them otherwise, whereas they do with only 1.

    2. Atheos says:

      In AC explorable mode, where you’re free to chose one of several different paths, one pits your party against a room, formerly where you fought “The Lovers”, FULL of gravelings and regularly respawning burrows, all while you have to protect two different, very frail devices from their attacks. As it’s almost impossible for a single player to reliably destroy the burrows, the party is invariably overwhelmed, the devices destroyed and the event reset. One burrow and a few little bastards is no problem. A FLOOD of them, on the other hand, is insane.

  12. Samopsa says:

    Hey Shamus, you are missing the last HL2 episode in the playlist (21), just thought I’d give you a heads-up!

  13. Tharwen says:

    I don’t know if this is a new problem, but I just tried to watch the first episode on Bioshock and the video was blank with a message saying ‘Free trial expired – Upgrade now’

    1. Weimer says:

      Be enlightened, mon ami:

      Viddler Suicide

      1. Tharwen says:

        Ah! I’d forgotten about that. Silly Viddler.

    2. 4th Dimension says:

      Basically Vidler decided they hate the money they gained through ads, so now they are trying to make people pay to upload videos. And all non paid videos like Spoiler Warning were taken down. You can read more about that here: http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=17165

  14. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Ok,since you dont want update posts without discussions about something,Ill open one about what you posted on twitter.

    I get why microsoft is doing that.They got angry about ea,ubisoft and activision getting all the flak in these past years,and want to climb back up to their evil throne.And hey,who doesnt want that lucrative biggest douche in the universe award.And they seriously screwed up with windows 7,so they have much ground to cover,and fast.

    1. X2Eliah says:

      I’d say that Windows 8 will very soon wipe all goodwill they got with Win7, fast. (I can say that because I’ve tried the release preview of Win8, and it truly is bad).

      1. Bubble181 says:

        I’ve tried it, and I’m of the firm conviction that it is somewhat usable on a tablet and/or phone.

        It’s about as good and practical to use on a desktop as a quill is as a way to use a printer cartridge.

        If this had been their Win8 For Phones, it’d have been a decent-but-forgettable product. As is, it ranks somewhere between Millennium and Vista RC on the Windows-scale.

        1. X2Eliah says:

          Oh, I agree about the phone thing. Have a phone7.5, and it is actually very pleasant to use (if frustrating in terms of app lackiness). But, yeah, Windows 8 is as much for tablets as it is for desktops (keep in mind that Windows Phone 8 is a different product using vaguely the same gui and framework), and on desktops it is terrible.

  15. Torsten says:

    Nice to see the linklists for seasons and specials updated so there is no need to fish a particular episode out of the previous posts.
    Half-Life 2 list seems to be missing the season finale, though it can be found by clicking the last episode and then following the next post link.

  16. potemkin.hr says:

    Aaaaw yeah, missed the playlists when wanting to watch certain let’s plays in the proper order. Never could find out which was which cause of the humongously long video names. Now my Half-Life 2 marathon can commence!
    If you ever find your way to Croatia, you have several free beers (or another beverage of your own choosing).

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