I normally keep my microphone on a swivel arm so it can hover near my mouth. The swivel arm fell apart last week and I’m not sure it can be saved, which is why I sound like I’m recording in an echo chamber now. I’m trying to work out some sort of arrangement where I can put the microphone closer to my mouth without needing to build a ridiculous tower out of books.
Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #228: Nimbatus, Digital Comics, Minecraft”
Today’s late post was caused by Maniac, the Netflix original series that released this month. Last night I planned to write a post to fill this space, but instead I binged my way through 9 of the 10 episodes of Maniac. I only stopped because it was nearly dawn, I was up about 6 hours past my bedtime, and I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. I polished off the last episode as soon as I got up.
This is a surprise, because…
And yet somehow the whole thing worked for me. Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Netflix’s Maniac”
*This post arrived a bit late, sorry about that. I’m traveling and had some hotel wifi issues*
And so we come to the end of the main questline. It’s a big, cinematic set piece, with a pair of bosses who are pretty good by this game’s standards, and ends with a scene that caps off the theme of Ciri having her own story independent of Geralt’s. For all that, I’ve never managed much emotional investment in it. Both in my first time through the game, and in subsequent ones, by the time I get this far in my primary emotional state seems to be impatience.
This may say more about me than it does the game, because it’s not an uncommon thing for me. Generally, by the time a playthrough hits the 50-60 hour mark in one of these long RPGs I’m starting to get antsy, and my reaction to seeing the finish line is to rush towards it rather than enjoy the journey.
It might also say something about RPGs in general. If there’s a tick that I don’t like about AAA RPG writing, it’s the insistence on the big, epic, world-saving conclusion. So often the final act divorces itself from the tone that gave the rest of the game its charm. This is compounded by the palpable sense that the writers and developers are getting as impatient as I am, though maybe that’s just a projection on my part. In either case, here are a list of issues I have with the final set piece, in no particular order:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “The Witcher 3: The White Frost”
For reasons I’ve explained before, I have a firm “no politics” rule here on the site. There are lots of places to have the standard Red v. Blue debates, and most of them are sewers. The last thing I’d want is to play referee in that never-ending screaming match. Having said that, I’m going to break my own rules and make a political statement:
I apologize for the breach of etiquette. I’m not announcing my beliefs to pick a fight or in the hopes that I can sway you to my thinking. In fact, I don’t really have a stake in what you think and I’m certainly not interested in trying to change your mind. If you disagree, that’s fine. We’re still friends as far as I’m concerned.
The only reason I bring this up is because I want to make it clear that I am ideologically in agreement with the author of this scene. My objections to this mission aren’t because I don’t like having “someone else’s opinion” shoved down my throat. My grievances here aren’t based on party politics or tribal thinking. My problem here is that the GTA V argument against torture is so childish and inept that it made me want to disagree.
Of all the things in Grand Theft Auto V that don’t work, the torture scene is the not-workingest. It takes a rare skill to be simultaneously sanctimonious and incoherent. This scene is fractally wrong. As you zoom in on a mistake you’ll see it’s made up of smaller mistakes that are just as misguided as the whole. The last time I was presented with something this dense with problems was the hotel scene in Hitman: Absolution. It’s actually hard to analyze this in an orderly way because the problems are so thick and interconnected. But I’ll do my best.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Grand Theft Auto V: Torture Time With Uncle Trevor”
My column this week is… well, you can probably guess from the title. I love the new Spider-Man game, but that won’t stop me from picking at its flaws.
I have some other gripes about the game. In fact, I have a lot of gripes. Like I said a few days ago, I’ll be doing a full retrospective on this game in the coming months. When the time comes we’ll spend a lot of words analyzing this game and its comic influences. I’m currently on my fifth play-through of the game. Actually, my fourth and fifth play-throughs are concurrent. Number four is the one where I’m capturing all my gameplay footage and doing 100% of all the side content, while number five is just me blasting through the story as quickly as possible and ignoring all side content.
There’s nothing I can say here that won’t spoil what I’m going to write later. So instead let me share some screenshots with you. If you examine these very closely, you might be able to spot one more little gripe I have with the game. It might be subtle, so keep your eyes open!
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Experienced Points: Where Marvel’s Spider-Man Fails”
Back in 2008 or so I read some studies showing that the PC gaming market had dwindled. I don’t remember what those studies were, who did them, or where I read about them, but the idea stuck in my head that the PC was no longer a major concern to the big publishers.
This certainly explained their behavior at the time. In 2008, gaming was plagued by horrible ports, ghastly PC performance, and burdensome DRM. And that’s when publishers could be bothered to port a game to the PC in the first place. It very much felt like PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii were where the bulk of hardcore gamers were at, and the PC was sitting at the kid’s table.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “This Dumb Industry: The PC Market Share”
I knew this would happen sooner or later. Sometimes there just isn’t enough news going on to give me a topic for a weekly column. Now that I’m writing at the Escapist, I’m trying to fill two columns.
One of the decisions I made when I took the Escapist gig was that I wan’t going to reduce the volume of content here on the blog. I think that’s the only way to be fair to my Patrons. Now I’m having trouble filling both commitments.
My self-imposed quota goes something like this:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Two Retrospectives at Once?”
This mess of dross, confusion, and terrible UI design is the storefront the big publishers couldn't beat? Amazing.
The true story of three strange days in 1989, when the last months of my adolescence ran out and the first few sparks of adulthood appeared.
So what happens when a SOFTWARE engineer tries to review hardware? This. This happens.
Obviously they are. Right? Actually, is this another one of those sneaky hard-to-define things?
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.
Dear people of the internet: Please stop doing these horrible idiotic things when you talk to each other.
Who is this imbecile and why is he wandering around Europe unsupervised?
What are publishers doing to fight piracy and why is it all wrong?
Finally, the age-old debate has been settled.
What lessons can we learn from the abrupt demise of this once-impressive games studio?
T w e n t y S i d e d
