T w e n t y S i d e d
Link (YouTube) |
And so it ends. Not with a bang, with many bangs… followed by profanity, more complaining, a crescendo of plot holes, another bug, and a pointless death.
Really, I would have been disappointed if it had ended any other way.
Also, I plugged Rutskarn’s Clod of Cthulhu series. That’s still good and still worth a read. Warning: He wasn’t kidding when he said it was more nonsensical than Fallout 3.
Also, be sure to check out the final version of the official death-by-drinking-game spreadsheet. Heartfelt thanks to Deadfast, Traiden (Andrew), James and Jak for all their hard work and drink-counting.
Borderlands Series
A look at the main Borderlands games. What works, what doesn't, and where the series can go from here.
Punishing The Internet for Sharing
Why make millions on your video game when you could be making HUNDREDS on frivolous copyright claims?
Bad and Wrong Music Lessons
A music lesson for people who know nothing about music, from someone who barely knows anything about music.
The Middle Ages
Would you have survived in the middle ages?
Project Octant
A programming project where I set out to make a Minecraft-style world so I can experiment with Octree data.
Cool, the last episode of the (reposted) season.
It’s been an honor watching your humble, non-mercenary story, sirs.
(Also, I’m assuming BioShock is next (and last?) to get the reposting treatment?)
Beeeeeeeees, that is all, also we get to hear naive, happy mumbles slowly break
I think there may be at least a couple specials to do as well – the TF2 special and Randy’s BFBC2 (assuming either party still has the edited footage still), plus any other unlisted videos I may not be aware of, since all this is before I started visiting here.
Typo:
>> “it was more nonsensical THAT Fallout 3.”
Also “with with many bangs.”
Almost as if sloppiness was pouring out from the video into the surrounding text.
It’s fun watching this video now just for lines like “That type of game (Fallout) is gone forever…for the forseeable future” and knowing that a sequel to Wasteland, Fallout’s predecessor, is supposed to come out this year.
Not saying these games will necessarily be great, or even good, but it is interesting hearing these conversations after the success of the PE, Torment, Wasteland 2 and Shadowrun Returns kickstarters.
No, it’s still gone. Wasteland 2 isn’t a game like Fallout. It’s a top-down 3d engine game, which is quite different, both artistically and mechanically.
Shadowrun Returns MIGHT be a better example, but I’m not 100% sure of that yet.
From their respective, recent-ish gameplay preview videos, Shadowrun looks no nearer to Fallout than Wasteland 2 does – an expected result I suppose given the setting. Actually a common comment was that Shadowrun Returns looked like XCOM (the new one) in look and feel, just with a de-emphasised cover system.
I didn’t see any camera controls, which implies a more forced isometric viewpoint, which in turn enforces certain design choices and conceits that share many simularities with Fallout.
The developers have confirmed the forced isometric viewpoint, explaining that it gives them more control over the appearance of the environment given the budget they’re working with.
That’s actually one of the big advantages of isometric over free camera. Honestly, of all the Kickstarts I’ve backed, Shadowrun Returns has thus far looked to be the one I’ll like the most.
I have to figure out what pic I’m going to use for my Doc Wagon card.
I have seen those too (imma backer), and I think that it looks much like a smoother, more up to date version of the original Fallout games.
So you are correct, it isn’t the same, but I think that it is more like if they had continued down that same path, SRR is the kind of thing they would have come up with.
Plus stylistically, Fallout was based in a post apocalyptic world, whereas Shadowrun is near future.
Actually, the biggest thing that I don’t like is that they got rid of the ability to loot bodies. Getting teh lootz is a big thing for me.
Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numeria.
Oh, wow. I didn’t notice this before;
Shamus: “Live it up Josh. There’s gonna be no more drugs going forward.”
Rutskarn: “Well, except like in real life, I mean I know you’re living in Nevada.”
Shamus: “[You’re] not going to be injecting yourself with any strange, unknown [substances]… That might do horrifying things to your body.”
That was some clever foreshadowing.
Bioshock forshadownig?
Listening to the beginning about games makes me laugh with joy for what’s happened with kickstarter and Wasteland 2/Torment: Tides of Numenara.
Also, Shamus with the additional “In the original fallout” just for the drinking game. I know you were predicting the future and how many people you could hypothetically kill in a marathon run :P
“This kind of game will never be made again” – that was before Wasteland 2/Torment Tides of Numenera/Shadowrun Kickstarted?
Would one even consider these games counterpoint?
Way before. I’m not sure that Kickstarter existed when this video was done.
But yes I started watching SW towards the end of the FO:New Vegas series and the idea of using crowdfunding to fund games neither the publisher nor independent developer model supported wasn’t even remotely a thing.
It wasn’t until Tim Schaffer’s Kickstarter success and FTL that I’d really heard about games being funded by kickstarter.
You’d be correct in assuming that the first several seasons of Spoiler Warning predate Kickstarter. The face of the game development world has changed a lot since the halcyon days of SW. Activision was the most hated name in gaming, ME3’s ending hadn’t become a thing, DXHR hadn’t come out…so many encouraging signs about the future of gaming, which led to a grumpier, meaner Shamus & co. than we have today.
But they liked DX:HR?
Was this the episode that brought the big holly war of NMA to your blog?Or was it an experienced points article you made?I forget.
Also,it is a pleasant surprise that kickstarters happened,so your pessimistic views about middle budget games turned out to be false.And,to be honest,there are few companies that made middle budget games even back then,but I dont know if any of them made rpgs.1c for example deals with strategies,some of which are really astonishing.
5 million dollars isn’t the “middle budget” Shamus was talking about. I believe he was thinking more in the 20-30 range.
I was probably thinking in the 10-15 range, which may or may not be the “middle” these days.
Either way, some $5 million games sounds good too.
Here’s another problem with mid-level games, or at least, the opportunity to make them: Studios (and I mean investors tied in with movies & TV) don’t get how relatively inexpensive it is to make a video game that could earn money, promote an IP, and give a small team a chance to try out some ideas or at least polish their skills.
I talked with a friend of mine who works at an L.A. entertainment house that owns a very successful IP in the world of comic books and movies. He said they were looking at using some video game characters for a comic series and maybe movie development.
I asked, “Why don’t you use [character X] and have some people make a game for that? You guys own it, and you could get a decent iPhone game for around 20 grand. Toss a few million at it with the right people and you could even have a fun pickup game on consoles and PC.”
He said he’d told his bosses that. He’d shown them the return on that investment could exceed that of some of their smaller movie projects. They weren’t interested. And this was for something they owned the rights to, lock stock and barrel, along with a ton of 2D art. It’s madness.
The budget of a regular AAA game towards the first half of this gen ($20-30 mil) is “middle budget” now?
Edit: Ninja’d by Shamoose
Also, to put into perspective, Lair’s initial budget was $12M-$15M
Thinking in terms of AAA games being 50-100 million dollars now is how I came about the 20-30 figure.
And let’s not forget Paradox, who has made publishing strategy (neckbeard variety) and odd games into their hat.
For example Magica, Showdown Effect, Dungeonland (would be nice to have Josh DM othe guys) etc.
Why was Josh imitating bane in the beginning of this video?
It was sean connery, the original James Bond.
I think the better question is why Tom Hardy decided to imitate Sean Connery
It certainly brought me much merriment to be able to mentally overdub all of Bane’s hideously cliched dialogue with lines from Darrel Hammond’s Connery impersonation on SNL. Too bad none of the other actors were as considerate with their acting because there was certainly a lot of hideously cliched dialogue to go around.
Suck it, Trebek!
Its kinda funny you guys talking about the lack of those RPGs with now we are seeing a reemergence of at least or the squad based tactical games.
It is funny to see how far gaming has come in recent years.
“It won’t be hate and bile all the time.”
Oh if only we knew then…
Howdy Shamus! I hail from the future of 2013, and if you think that’s unbelievable, I’m gonna strain your belief systems even further: “medium sized” games are back thanks to this “crowdfunding” thing! (the Wikipedia article started in *your* past so you can look the term up!)
Not only that, but mid sized devs are developing isometric classic RPGs (for the “thinking man” as you so accurately put it). Believe you me! Even the people at No Mutants Allowed have been rejoicing profusively, you have Wasteland 2 (yeah, a sequel to the 1988 classic!), “Project Eternity”, Tides of Numenera (a spiritual sequel to PS:Torment!). All developed by Black Isle veterans! You have a bright future ahead of ya, champ!
PS: you can link in this post to a disclaimer Rutskarn posted back then explaining NMA is not a den of scum and villainy.
An epic classic that ended amazingly. I miss the ending clip compilation tributes that were in these first two seasons. ;(
Didn’t the New Vegas season have one?
I haven’t watched this video and don’t recall what exactly is in it (so it may well be the same), but I think the New Vegas ending was more of an outtakes plus “crazy experimentation with the console” reel than a highlights one.
But that’s why I brought it up, cause it seems to me that the Fallout 3 ending also includes wacky things that were never in the original videos.
And rewatching the endings, there has to be console use in the F3 one. He has Three Dog at the Tenpenny Tower balcony. There’s also a point where he’s repeatedly shooting some weapon I don’t recognize, without ammo amount decreasing.
Though it’s not really anywhere near as abused as the NV one, admittedly.
I didn’t know the lid of a nuclear suitcase could propel a corpse like that. That’s why I watch Spoiler Warning: It’s educational.
Indeed there had to be console usage involved, and this I knew. That’s why I didn’t call it a montage as had I originally planned.
Yay! I actually haven’t seen seasons 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, or 11 yet due to hiding from spoilers(although I’m planning on playing through Bioshock a little ahead of the season 3 LP) So knowing there’s still at least one left is cool.
Hm. Some DLC gives you broken weapons, another gives you absurdly powerful enemies to shoot with said weapons. Allow me to put on my tin foil hat and speculate as to what sort of monetary scheme that might suggest.
Unrelated:
Places in Fallout 3 subjected to wanton mayhem:
Megaton
Paradise Falls
The Citadel
Two Enclave bases
Three Dogg’s Tower
Places in Fallout 3 not subjected to wanton mayhem:
Vault 101
Rivet City
Bigtown
Republic of Dave
Little Lamplight(sigh)
Well, it about breaks even, I’d say. Good work.
I’ve maintained that the problem with broken weapons in a lot of these RPGs comes from trying to accommodate players who role-play and players who are munchkins.
If this were a tabletop RPG, there wouldn’t be nearly so much sidequesting. The DM wouldn’t let you hoover up loot and search every file cabinet for caps and ammo because it’d be a drag on the game (ignoring the quality of the story for a moment). A lot of game modules might have amazing weapons and loot, but it’s often behind skill barriers or is just really easy to miss. Not so with video games, where you can be as OCD about clearing out every building of everything that’s not nailed down.
I’m curious how those making games like this (and not just for Bethesda) view how they’ll be played. Over-saturating the area with powerful weapons ensures the players will find something, but it also means someone can become a walking cataclysm in very short order.
So. That was a thing.
I’m thinking my “decision” to run out of money and time for games around 2000 was a good one (though I did have to RE-buy Thief, Thief 2, and System Shock 2 on GOG because I couldn’t be arsed to figure out how to patch the versions on my cds to make them function in XP; Deus Ex runs fine for me off my cd). I did make some money/time exceptions for the Half Life and Portal series, but little else.
I shall finish the drink tally once I get home later today (maybe sooner if some of my accomplices beat me to it). In the meantime, are there any more charts you’d like to see?
I thought the alternate graph that you linked at the original chart was pretty interesting and likely very entertaining for the analysts.
I love it how the F-Bombs come in hilarioulsy aggressive spikes.
It’s weird just how distinct those DLC spikes are. It’s visual proof that DLCs tend to be buggy and a little frustrating
While the first spike is Anchorage, the second one is actually little lamplight. So while we’re on the topic of additional chars, could we get some indications in the charts where the dlcs start and end? or maybe other notable parts in the game like little lamplight.
I know it’s utterly silly, but seeing a chart of the alcohol blood content(as in, how much blood is the drinker’s alcohol system) would be fun. I think it bottoms out at like three thousand-odd percent, something like that.
Personally, I’d like to see a chart in terms of “you drank enough to kill a….” for various other creatures. Obviously, no animal’s specific biological reaction to alcohol is studied to the degree humans are, but I’d expect you could extrapolate by body mass.
e.g. I’d want to know that a mouse playing the drinking game would have died at the 7:05 mark of the first episode, while an elephant would lasted until episode 20. Would a blue whale have survived at all?
Alternately, if they played the “drink along” game, how many (literal) guinea pigs would have perished? Or platipi?
Well I just did a quick calculation,and after this whole session,an average sized elephant(4 tons)would be impaired and shouldnt be driving(0.9″°).He would be alive though.
There you go with your permils again. This is .09% for you good ‘mericans reading.
Shamus, considering how fervently you expressed your desire for medium sized teams making (“the thinking man’s”) games that appeal to smaller audiences, I’m surprised you haven’t weighed in on the Kickstarter issue, either here or on Experienced Points, or even on Diecast, far as I can tell.
With Wasteland and Project Eternity, exactly these sort of games are being made now, and mostly by the same people who made everybody’s favorite isometric RPGs of the late 90s.
Is it that the chips are in the air now and you’re waiting for them to fall before making any comment? Or is it that you haven’t paid much attention to whatever’s happening on Kickstarter? (Or did I miss some post where you’ve written about them?)
EDIT: Oh, now there’s Torment: Tides of Numenera, too.
Here’s the Experienced Points article where he talked about
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/9597-Kickstarter-Proceed-with-Caution
EDIT: And here’s the tweet that google through up when I was looking for a blog post =D
https://twitter.com/shamusyoung/status/167775874291212289
There’s something a bit wrong about quoting a year old tweet. Maybe because it’s all designed to be so throw away :P
This is the internet. It’s like peeing in a swimming pool: You’ve already dumped it in and chances are you’ll never be able to get it back out again.
I mentioned it in my column about a year ago:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/9597-Kickstarter-Proceed-with-Caution
I cant remember if it was on the Diecast or Spoiler Warning, but I remember saying that we’re getting close to having our first round of awful Kickstarter failures. KS games will fail to hit their targets just like other types of games, and I’m VERY curious to see how the crowd responds.
Other that that, this is a great movement with many potential upsides aside from getting good games to play.
EDIT: And Thomas beat me to it my hours. That’s the risk of reading and responding to comments chronologically.
Not a failure as such, but today’s announcement that Shadowrun Returns will use Steam as its primary distribution method, and the only one forward-compatible with any future DLC, has set off a firestorm in the Kickstarter comments and elsewhere. I’d guess that it qualifies as “failing to hit their target”, in spirit if not by the letter of the law.
The offending quote for context:
“Now, that may prompt the question, “What about DRM-free?” To honor our original promise of a DRM-free version of the game, the Harebrained Account Website will also contain a downloadable version of Shadowrun Returns that does not include Steam integration. While this version will include the Seattle story (and Berlin, via a one-time update), without Steam integration, it will be unable to browse and play community-created stories from within the game. Any future DLC will only be available through Steam.”
Finally!
Thankfully, Kick Starter happened to the RPG community since this episode was made. So we still got some hope left.
Although Skyrim with guns(dubbed Fallout 4) can be seen almost crystal clear in my mind now. The horrors!
Well…it’s been fun watching all that again, but one horrible thing lingers in the back of my mind after this:
Is Reginald fighting the Enclave to nuke the Citadel that different from the Brotherhood fighting the Enclave to turn on Project Purity? Did this last drug bender warp his mind enough for him to become the Elder Lions of Bizarroworld? Or more fittingly the Mr.Spock, since he clearly has a fabulous beard.
Honestly, I hate that bit worse than anything else in fallout 3.
“Oh, by the way, you’re pretty much at the end of the road. And although we haven’t indicated in ANY WAY you’d be able to do this previously, and even though we’ve railroaded you since Broken Steel began to be the Brotherhood’s BFF, we’re going to toss in an option to nuke them because reasons.”
Completely doesn’t fit with the rest of Broken Steel. Absolutely zero explanation why if they had this ability they haven’t used it already. What, are they saving it for something? Even if they are, the attack on their main and last base isn’t reason enough?
It’s just so flippin’ lazy. If you want to give me options in Broken Steel to work against the Brotherhood, do some, y’know, WRITING. Give me options. Give me some sort of different quest objectives. Not a magic “screw the brotherhood” switch at the end, literally tacked on to the “you win!” maguffin.
But, but, it’s like, totally foreshadowed by the name of the DLC itself!
Please. The name was a sop to the legal department.
Legal department: “You can’t possibly release this crap and actually charge money for it! It’s so bug riddled and crappy that anyone who buys it will sue us into the next county for false advertising, bait-and-switch, deceptive practices, and maybe racketeering. We forbid you to sell this to an unsuspecting public!”
Bethesda producer: “Okay, okay, okay. Let’s put the word ‘Broken’ right in the name of the game. They can’t say they weren’t warned then, amiright?”
Legal department: “Billiant!”
Hey you should apply for naming games at EA.If they had you on months ago,they couldve named their new game SimShitty,and then no one would complain how shitty it is.
That’s false advertising, as it was shown that the ideal city required no sewage system whatsoever!
But, if they had done that, people would get confused. Like, how can they know that siding with the Enclave gives you minus points with the BOS? Or how would they know what to do on their second play through if they picked a different side. :snicker
Or at least that’s what I believe Bethesda thinks. And I’m certain some of their fans as well. There are certainly many that don’t seem to like NV, because rival factions hate the pc for helping their enemies.
‘No more complaining about swiss-cheese plots and railroading’
That was a bit optimistic
That voice acting at the end was memetastic.
‘you. you did this. you goddam murderer. you’ve killed them all. kill this traitor. kill him.’
pulls out gun, turns away and starts walking to a place behind josh’s shoulder
What exactly were they going for with that line? Because it sounds like: “Oh, you silly rascal! I turn my back for two minutes and you murder everyone I ever knew or loved. You are just incorrigible!”
It even sounds like there’s a little chortle halfway through.
It didn’t help that he was wearing the dippiest outfit the Brotherhood has to offer. It’s like a cross between a WWI pilot, a Vegas performance art act, and a set of tin-foil pajamas.
Spoiler Warning crew nuking the utterly moronic Brotherhood of Steel out of existence, the show’s Magnum Opus.
But seriously, this episode is my favorite finale out of all the other seasons.
Just checked the drinking game page. RIP Victim #6.
Also funny how nearly half of the addictions were acquired in the final episode.
Yeah, this episode is like a quarter of the combat gorge count, too.
Even now, all these seasons later, this is still probably Spoiler Warning’s best ending.
Megaton? Dead.
Three Dog? Dead.
Enclave? Dead.
Brotherhood of Steel? Dead.
Reginald Cuftbert goes down in anti-climatic, poetic justice, gun-blazing glory.
He died to that one super mutant overlord that spawns outside the Citadel once you install Broken Steel. I ran into that guy at level 7-ish and using every stealthboy, explosive, and stimpack in my arsenal managed to whittle him down to no health bars showing. I only needed one more hit. . . and he killed me. . . in the middle of VATS!
After all that combat gorging and multiple deaths, poor Fred never stood a chance. Especially since the hosts have now started going out of their way to get people blasted. I knew as the episode reached that final battle segment that Fred couldn’t hope to survive. Greg’s fine, though, so har har, Shamus, even Josh can’t quite kill seven people armed with nothing but booze and Bethesda’s failures.
And so it shall soon begin….the end of Mumbles optimism.
Wooo thread necrooooo
I like the part where Josh gets Grim Reaper’s Sprint (it totally is “sprint”, by the way), a perk which seriously suits his VATS-heavy playstyle up to that point because of the massive buff to VATS, and then promptly stops using VATS altogether.
Reginald the Rabid put down by a random “Super Mutant Overlord”? Mhm hm.. Let me just drag this little nugget through the cat flap onto your expensive white comment thread carpet:
“[…] it actually would’ve been […] interesting if you’re an evil character, Fawkes wanders off and maybe at some point later you’re doing something evil and he shows up, because now he’s like a lone crusader for good and you had to fight him. That would be interesting.”
(Rutskarn, Ep22: President Evil, 34:25)
Eeyup, headcanon accordingly adjusted. The game, buggy as it is, just displayed the wrong ID or something.
Interesting.