Thanks to the folks who sent in questions. We still have a few in the queue, but as always the email is in the header image.
Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #244: Anthem, Warframe, Mailbag”
If you’re reading this site, then you know about DM of the Rings. That comic turns 13 this year. When that comic came out, both BioWare and id Software were still independent game studios, and the Red Ring of Death was plaguing the new Xbox 360. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and the first Saints Row game had just released. XKCD was relatively new and hadn’t yet exploded into the institution it is today, which means there was possibly a window of a few weeks somewhere in 2006 where my work was as popular as Randal Munroe’s.
It was a long time ago, is what I’m saying.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Chainmail Bikini Returns”
My column this week talks about the final game between pro Starcraft II player MaNa and the AlphaStar AI. As you’ve probably figured out from the subtle hints in the title, the human won this time around. My article talks about how MaNa won and gives some historical contextIn this case, me talking about games I was playing 20 years ago counts as “historical context”. to the matchup.
How AlphaStar was developed:
They seeded the system with some of the basics of the game: Building a base, creating units, attacking the opponent. From there:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Human Ingenuity Beats AI’s Machine Precision”
The next stop on our tour of the Heleus Cluster is Havarl. Like the other planets, the climate is out of whack. Unlike the other planets, this place suffers from an overabundance of life rather than a shortage.
Havarl is overgrown with a thick jungleYet another single-biome planet.This is the one planet where you can’t drive the Nomad. and all of the native flora and fauna is exceedingly dangerous. Everything is toxic, poisonous, or filled with murderous intent.
The game says this is the ancestral home of the Anagara and that they had to abandon it when it became too inhospitable, but that doesn’t really fit with what we’re shown. I’d expect to see bits of Angaran cities poking out of the overgrowth. They’re a spacefaring species, so their cities must have been pretty impressive. But instead the “cities” are just endless sections of Remnant architecture that form horizon-smothering black walls around the play area. I imagine this is another detail that would have been ironed out if the game had been given time for polish.
I do like that this world offers some contrast with the other four and isn’t yet another lifeless hellscape for us to colonize.
As with the other worlds, you need to visit the monoliths, then do the vault, and then the game tells you the planet is stabilizing. Then you run around and do fetch quests and kill the mooks congregating around map markers until the planet hits 100%. Whee.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Andromeda Part 17: Welcome to the Bungle”
Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #243: JAI, Warframe, Trailmakers”
Deus Ex Mankind Divided was a clumsy, tone-deaf allegory that thought it was clever, and it managed to annoy people of all political stripes.
Why spend millions on visuals that are just a distraction from the REAL game of hotbar-watching?
There's a wonderful way to balance difficulty in RPGs, and designers try to prevent it. For some reason.
Sometimes in-game secrets are fun and sometimes they're lame. Here's why.
What was the problem with the Playstation 3 hardware and why did Sony build it that way?
A screencap comic that poked fun at videogames and the industry. The comic has ended, but there's plenty of archives for you to binge on.
An interesting but technically dense talk about gaming technology. I translate it for the non-coders.
Would you have survived in the middle ages?
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2013.
Crysis 2 has basically the same plot as Half-Life 2. So why is one a classic and the other simply obnoxious and tiresome?
T w e n t y S i d e d