We have an extra-long show for you this week. Note that I’m not promising it’ll be the same quality. I’m just saying there will be more of it.
Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #251: Risk of Rain 2, Satisfactory, Anthem”
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “#14 Sometimes a Spear is Just a Spear”
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “#13 The Sun-Tzu of Bartering”
Next up we get to play through the E3 demo from last year. This scene hasn’t changed very much since that demo. I mean, aside from the silly puddle controversy.
The only notable difference between the E3 demo and the final game is that the E3 demo had Mr. Negative participating in this sequence. In the release version, Mr. Negative doesn’t show up and you just fight his mooks.
I can see why this mission was chosen for the E3 Demo. The entire sequence serves as a vertical slice of the game. We sample a little bit of all the gameplay features in a short time, in a situation where the viewer doesn’t really need to know the story to follow the scene. There are a lot of spectacle-heavy cutscenes, yet the plot doesn’t really progress here and the whole thing could be removed from the game without the player missing out on any exposition or story beats.
Spider-Man arrives at a Fisk Construction building to find Demons wandering around the half-built skyscraper, systematically murdering Fisk’s men.
We get a stealth section where we can pick off the Demon goons. Then we get some straight combat with the Demons. Then we get a few cutscenes to show off how the game can seamlessly transition from cinematics to gameplay. Then we do a bunch of quicktime events to stop several tons of flaming wreckage from landing on helpless civilians below. Then we show off the city and the swinging gameplay in a helicopter chase, which ends with a big action climax that’s about 90% cutscene and 10% gameplay.
This mission is so superfluous to the story and yet so perfect as a trade show demo that it makes me think this section was designed specifically for this purpose and wasn’t part of the story as written. I really dislike showy sequences that show off the cinematography at the expense of gameplay, but I’ll be the first to admit this is an excellent example of the form.
It’s a fun sequence full of slick moments, and I really enjoy playing through it aside from the…
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Spider-Man Part 10: The Vertical Slice”
My column this week is about how the Epic Games Store is gobbling up exclusives. This is earning EGS a lot of anger, but most of the anger is over stuff that Steam has been doing for years. I’m fine with hating on EGS, but can we please not hold them to a higher standard than Steam?
One thing I didn’t touch on in the column is the relationship between Epic Games and the money-harvesting creeps at Tencent. Tencent bought a 40% stake in Epic back in 2013, and having that much of the company owned by an outside force is certainly a potential problem.
When I first heard about the merger / partnership / whatever, I wasn’t really worried. I assumed that it wasn’t a big deal, since they “only” owned 40% of Epic. That’s not a controlling share. But company culture is more important than share ownership, and Epic is enthusiastically embracing the habits and mindset of Tencent. I know you come to this site for text and not video, but if you’ve got twenty minutes to spare then the following video by Dan Olson is definitely worth a watch:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Experienced Points: The Epic Games Store Needs Work”
Maybe this series was longer than it needed to be. My original retrospective covered all three games in 50 entries. Here I’ve spent half that on just a single game. Despite that, I’ve skipped at least as much material as I’ve covered. Sometimes I worried that I wasn’t covering the game in enough detail to really drive home how numerous the problems are, and other times I felt like I was beating a dead horse. Mass Effect Andromeda is an enormous game and there’s a lot wrong with it.
Regardless of how we got here, we’re now at the endgame. Ryder chases the Archon to the heart of the Meridian control system for…
So we arrive at the central control room. The Archon is up on a platform, using his floating robot to use Scott to use SAM to use Meridian to summon a giant robo-worm for you to fight. He gives us one last monologue before the fight starts, and it’s yet another repetition of the same cartoon dialog we’ve been hearing since the first act of the game.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Andromeda Part 24: The Boss Fight at the End”
It’s April 1st, and tradition holds that I should deck the site out in silly images or somesuch. I didn’t have time for that this week, so a header image with nonsensical round dice will have to do. Also, let this serve as a friendly reminder to read the internet carefully today.
PAX East happened this past weekend. If I’d been doing my job, then I would have watched the show on Twitch and reported back with the highlights. Instead I watched the Gearbox show where they showed off Borderlands 3, and then ignored everything else.
I’ve wanted to go to PAX for the last couple of years, but I didn’t want to drive 600 miles (each way) in a car that was clearly in its twilight years. (And flying is just too dang expensive.) We have a reliable car now, and my new gig at the Escapist means I might be able to finagle a couple of press passes. So PAX East 2020 is a real possibility.
If any of you attended the show this year, please tell me your impressions. I don’t care if your story is, “I fell asleep in the car for 8 hours instead of entering the convention center.” I’d just like to hear some first-hand accounts from people who aren’t journalists.
Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #250: Borderlands 3, Risk of Rain 2, Playing Games “Wrong””
A programming project where I set out to make a Minecraft-style world so I can experiment with Octree data.
The game was a dud, and I'm convinced a big part of that is due to the way the game leaned into its story. Its terrible, cringe-inducing story.
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.
Finally, the age-old debate has been settled.
There's a wonderful way to balance difficulty in RPGs, and designers try to prevent it. For some reason.
Why make millions on your video game when you could be making HUNDREDS on frivolous copyright claims?
Did you anticipate the big plot twist of Batman: Arkham City? Here's all the ways the game hid that secret from you while also rubbing your nose in it.
This Korean title would be the greatest MMO ever made if not for the horrendous monetization system. And the embarrassing translation. And the terrible progression. And the developer's general apathy towards its western audience.
Who is this imbecile and why is he wandering around Europe unsupervised?
An ongoing series where I work on making a 2D action game from scratch.
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