NEWER POSTS

Site Update

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Jan 4, 2012

Filed under: Notices 221 comments
Saints Row The Third: New Year's Eve LivestreamPrevious Post
Next PostSite Changes

I’m tinkering with the site today, fixing long-standing issues and annoyances. (The bug where dates would sometimes not show at the top of a post should be fixed.) If there’s something broken or odd that you’ve always wanted to see fixed, then now is the time to speak up.

Also: I’m considering, and will probably experiment with, replacing my Google ads with Project Wonderful ads to see how they hold up. From talking to other people, I gather that my site is making a lot less than other sites with similar traffic levels. If that’s because I only have one ad and I keep it away from the content, then so be it. But I want to make sure I’m not just making some obvious mistake or passing up a better deal. So, ads may come and go, or move around, or whatever. Things will settle down once I have enough data to make a decent comparison.

So, heads up, basically. Try not to freak out. Let me know if something looks really wrong.

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Saints Row The Third: New Year's Eve LivestreamPrevious Post
Next PostSite Changes

221 comments

 

Errant Signal: Half-Life

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Jan 3, 2012

Filed under: Video Games 353 comments
Skyrim: The Adventures of Elfman the Man-ElfPrevious Post
Next PostThe Old Republic Forum Follies

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, it’s probably obvious that I enjoy analyzing and discussing games at least as much as I enjoy playing them. I sing the praises of games I like as a way of spreading the joy, and I criticize games that annoy me as a kind of catharsis. I think games journalism is very much lacking in this sort of careful introspection, and I’m always glad to see someone new join the ranks.

Here is a guy who is doing this in a big way and deserves a lot more attention than what he’s getting. His analysis of Grand Theft Auto IV is the most incisive I’ve seen. You may remember I did a side-by-side review of GTA IV and Saints Row 2. I pointed out these problems, but Campster’s review gets into why they’re problems and how they are at such odds with the core gameplay. As of this writing, Campster’s GTA review has less than 2,000 views, and that’s a shame. Please do your best to remedy this.

I first discovered Campster when a reader forwarded me a link to his review of Half-Life (the series) and his position that the game is “overrated”. As an admitted Half-Life 2 fan, I think some people are hoping I’ll jump in here and defend Valve’s flagship title. My defense is probably going to be much milder than most people might imagine, but I’m willing to offer it.

Here is Campster’s take on Half-Life. My response follows.


Link (YouTube)

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Errant Signal: Half-Life”

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Skyrim: The Adventures of Elfman the Man-ElfPrevious Post
Next PostThe Old Republic Forum Follies

353 comments

 

The Beauty of Twentymine

By Shamus Posted Monday Jan 2, 2012

Filed under: Movies 88 comments
New Years With The SaintsPrevious Post
Next PostPayday: The Heist

This is a tour of things people have built on the Twentymine Minecraft Server. I know that not everyone who visits this site is here for the video content. Some of you are at work, and can’t get away with that sort of entertainment while you’re on the clock. Even if you’re one of those people, I’d encourage you to not miss this one. Turn down the speakers if you have to, but at least scan through it.


Link (YouTube)

The cathedral just before the five-minute mark is astounding to me. I suppose I’d call it the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen in Minecraft. It’s a work of careful artistry, done on a massive scale. Working on a project like this is like a three-dimensional version of 8-bit pixel art, where the artist has to work on individual pixels while still being aware of how it will all look on the macro scale. I’ve tried and failed many times to create this sort of architecture, so my appreciation might be borne of envy. I don’t know. Your mileage my vary.

Of course, there’s a lot of other impressive work going on. I know that some of this stuff was not built by hand. There are some macro tools and some copy / paste commands available to some people, although I don’t know what those are or how they work. Still, these structures are impressive no matter what tools were used to make them. A painting is not artistically diminished if the painter used advanced brushes to make the task easier. It still takes talent to put your vision on the canvas.

My own humble house makes an appearance at the seven-minute mark. I was proud of it when it was built, but it’s kind of small and embarrassing compared to the ambitious projects that others have undertaken.

Nice work to everyone who put so much work into the place. Slow clap.

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

New Years With The SaintsPrevious Post
Next PostPayday: The Heist

88 comments

 

New Years With The Saints

By Shamus Posted Saturday Dec 31, 2011

Filed under: Movies 38 comments
Spoiler Warning Presents: Christmas is CanceledPrevious Post
Next PostThe Beauty of Twentymine

Happy 2012! (Approximately. Given the annoying largeness of our planet, the way it’s divided into time-zones, and taking into account the insane inhabitants who insist on changing the clocks twice a year to save on candle wax, it’s New Years for some of you at this point.) Celebrate responsibly: By staying at home with your hands folded in your lap, drinking mineral water while listening to light jazz. Leave the partying to trained professionals.

The bad news: The world won’t actually end this year.

The good news: Josh is playing Saints Row The THREE and livestreaming it.

Stop by and watch for a bit. I’ll be there. Jarenth will be there. Heck, Josh might even show up.

EDIT: That was fun. Thanks to everyone who stopped by. Happy New Year!

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Spoiler Warning Presents: Christmas is CanceledPrevious Post
Next PostThe Beauty of Twentymine

38 comments

 

Skyrim Thieves Guild Part 5

By Shamus Posted Friday Dec 30, 2011

Filed under: Elder Scrolls 333 comments
Skyrim Thieves Guild Part 4Previous Post
Next PostThe Altered Scrolls, Part 1: The Story of Arena

skyrim_trio.jpg

We’re here in this ruin with Karliah and Brynjolf to kill Mercer. Now, we’re all members of the Thieves Guild. In fact, we’re all members of the Nightingales, the secret cult within the Thieves Guild. You would think that if anyone is ready for some sneaking around, it would be these two. But you would be wrong. You would be so wrong. You should be embarassed at how wrong you’d be. Here is how a fight goes:

I, striking from the shadows, drop a foe with a single arrow. The other foes in the area notice this, and begin searching for me. If I were on my own, I would slink away and hit them again from another vantage point, until they were all dead. With the Nightingales in tow, things work a bit differently. As soon as foes begin looking for me, these two idiots start screaming combat taunts, running out into the open and starting a huge melee. This attracts every foe in the room. They block my shots until they run out of hitpoints and go down. (They take a knee. They’re actually immortal.) The foes then abandon them and make a beeline for me, thus forcing my squishy, stealth-focused character into this huge clusterfarg of a battle. Assuming I manage to survive, Karliah and Brynjolf then stand up and spout a couple of triumphant taunts.

This is a move right out of the Leroy Jenkins playbook. (More of a pamphlet, really. It only has one play.) It is completely mystifying to me that the designers would saddle you with these two morons for this extended dungeon crawl. They ruin the atmosphere, they ruin the gameplay, and they’re a constant reminder that the quest I’m on makes no damn sense.

Their one saving grace is that they are just as stupid and clumsy as Mercer, and you can lead them into traps to amuse yourself.

Come on guys. Just a little closer. Remember: Pain is just comedy leaving the body.
Come on guys. Just a little closer. Remember: Pain is just comedy leaving the body.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Skyrim Thieves Guild Part 5”

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Skyrim Thieves Guild Part 4Previous Post
Next PostThe Altered Scrolls, Part 1: The Story of Arena

333 comments

 

Saints Row The Third: New Year’s Eve Livestream

By Shamus Posted Thursday Dec 29, 2011

Filed under: Notices 37 comments
How I LearnedPrevious Post
Next PostSite Update

On New Years Eve, Josh is going to bring in the new year with violence and… more violence, I guess. He’s going to play Saints Row: The Third and Livestream the result for the rest of us to watch. His game will begin at 7pm PST and run until midnight PST. (Which works out to 3am to 8am GMT on New Year’s day.

This will be his first-ever time playing the game. I’ll stop by and add some commentary at some point. There may be other guests as well. I’ll have a post once the show begins, but the stream will be found here.

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

How I LearnedPrevious Post
Next PostSite Update

37 comments

 

Skyrim Thieves Guild Part 4

By Shamus Posted Thursday Dec 29, 2011

Filed under: Elder Scrolls 251 comments
Skyrim Thieves Guild Part 3Previous Post
Next PostSkyrim Thieves Guild Part 5

skyrim_oath4.jpg

So we meet these two idiots at Nightingale HQ, and Karliah tells us we’re here to “get the edge we need to defeat Mercer Frey”. Now, if you want to defeat Mercer Frey, all you really need to do is challenge him to a contest of not screaming a combat taunt for ten consecutive seconds, but whatever.

In the last segment, the story fell apart for me. This bit is where it pissed me off. We’re going to join the Nightingales.

Dear Bethesda: Do you understand that nightingales are birds, and not usually associated with power, cunning, or even darkness? I mean, I know you’ve got the word “night” in there, but the name actually means “‘night songstress”. As in singing. They are not harbingers of danger, adventure, or secrecy. They’re actually cute, fluffy little birds. It’s a terrible, terrible name for your super-secret cult. You basically named yourselves, “The Adorable Little Songbirds”. It sounds really stupid to hear people talking about “Nightingales” like they’re something insidious, and that’s before we see how completely useless they are. I can’t shake the feeling you were thinking of owls, crows, ravens, or blackbirds.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Skyrim Thieves Guild Part 4”

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Skyrim Thieves Guild Part 3Previous Post
Next PostSkyrim Thieves Guild Part 5

251 comments

 
OLDER POSTS
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Revisiting a Dead Engine

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