T w e n t y S i d e d
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I’ve said in the past that Spoiler Warning seems to polarize my thoughts on a game. I develop admiration for some games, and animosity for others. This one is definitely falling into the “admiration” category. Yes, I know there are annoying bits all over the place. But overall I just love the rollercoaster of tension I feel when playing it. Like Chris said in an earlier episode: Nobody can create a sense of relief like Valve.
This is the same reason I enjoy survival horror. Not for the dread, but the relief. And Episode One is really good about this. You keep exiting horrible places into moments of quiet safety and exploration. That really scratches my itch.
So the Episode One Spoiler Warning is going to be seven episodes longThat sentence sounds ridiculous when deprived of context. Heck, it sounds a little silly IN context.. The final two episodes will happen next week. And then… I don’t know.
We’re still haggling over what game to cover next. We’re down to a list of four games, all of which were supported by three people and vetoed by the fourthMumbles wasn’t there for our last meeting..
Half-Life 2 and its episodes are so fun to do that I want to suggest we go back and do a season on the original Half-LifeWell, not the ORIGINAL original. The source engine remake would be easier to get running., but that would be a long season and that game has been thoroughly picked over, commentary-wise. I’m sure we’d have lots to talk about, but I doubt we would say anything that hasn’t been said a thousand times already. Also the game is crazy long by today’s standards. And kind of hard by today’s standards.
Footnotes:
[1] That sentence sounds ridiculous when deprived of context. Heck, it sounds a little silly IN context.
[2] Mumbles wasn’t there for our last meeting.
[3] Well, not the ORIGINAL original. The source engine remake would be easier to get running.
MMO Population Problems
Computers keep getting more powerful. So why do the population caps for massively multiplayer games stay about the same?
Could Have Been Great
Here are four games that could have been much better with just a little more work.
Starcraft: Bot Fight
Let's do some scripting to make the Starcraft AI fight itself, and see how smart it is. Or isn't.
The Best of 2017
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2017.
Playstation 3
What was the problem with the Playstation 3 hardware and why did Sony build it that way?
Well, the character you play as in Blue Shift is just referred to as “B. Calhoun” in the opening, and I don’t think any NPC refer to you as Barney, just as a Calhoun, so it is left open to interpretation. However, the Xen relay that Mossman refers to in HL2, was from Blue Shift.
Have any of you played the Black Mesa mod, what did you think of it?
While you’re probably not asking for my opinion on Black Mesa, I’ll give it anyway. I thought it was an astonishing achievement for a bunch of self-organised, unpaid fans, but also a great example of copying without understanding.
It shows how you can make the same game in the same environment feel a million times better just with tiny tweaks. To take an example, in the Blast Pit chapter when you turn on the generator, there’s a little puzzle you have to solve on the way back to the rocket test chamber. Some pooled water now has electricity arcing through it, and you have to push some boxes in to it to serve as stepping stones so you don’t get electrocuted. Black Mesa didn’t implement the puzzle, I’d guess because the source engine has no built-in for standing water or arcing electricity and nobody could be bothered to write the required shaders. It’s a shame, because that puzzle would be so much better with the physics Source supplies.
Anyway, without the puzzle, you go immediately from a fight with houndeyes to a fight with zombies, or to Blast Pit’s crowning moment of awesome where you fry the hydra. It completely destroys the pacing by giving you no room to breathe. Black Mesa is full of stuff like this. Some fights now take too long because while the number of enemies are the same, their AI is radically different. Some of the cuts leave the layout confused.
However, having said that, the random Chucklevision mugs that appear in the game make up for everything. 10 out of 10 for weird 90s nostalgia.
I’m going to weigh in as well. Black Mesa suffers greatly from the same issue as a lot of mods, what I’ll call difficulty creep. The trouble is, as you iterate on development of your mod, you slowly lose sight of the fact that you’ve been playing nothing else, and you stop being able to judge its difficulty. Because you know exactly what’s coming, it always feels too easy, so you crank up the difficulty to compensate.
And then you release, and “Easy” feels like “Nightmare” for the people who haven’t got the spoilers.
I definitely found Black Mesa to be very, very difficult. There are three points in the game that are just like trying to pull my head out of a tightened vice: the Apache chopper boss, and the area after the explosive warehouse where there are big aliens and VTOL’s of spec-ops guys in a container-filled courtyard (the place where you use the LAW against the tank afterwards), and the big ambush in the lobby after you rescue the scientists.
I’ve played through Black Mesa twice. The helicopter was a lot easier the second time around, which I attribute at least somewhat to luck. The other two big fights were still just absolutely brutal, and the big outdoor battle is just a huge battery of savescumming and cheese for me.
Absolutely agreed. As I mentioned in the discussion about the Magnusson-Strider fight, I love games like this, but I’m not the most leet in the room. I had to put down Black Mesa for a few months, because even on the easiest mode, it stopped being fun. I went to play some other shooters like Borderlands 2 that respected my mediocre skills more.
And as I recall, I got to the final (stupid) teleport core, looked at it with exhaustion, and just reached for the developer console. I couldn’t bear the thought of it.
Honestly, my only beef with the difficulty was the implementation of the ‘crouchJump’ in the game. That was just plain bad design and the justification for it by the devs was raw brodouche.
Um,the original half life already had crouch jump.Was it introduced earlier in the mod?
Not as such, it was just absolutely compulsory for every. Single. Time. you wanted to jump onto something. Need to get on a desk? Crouchjump. Want to jump through that broken window? Crouchjump. Any jump in which you were aiming to gain height HAD to be crouchjumped. It got very boring after a while, because they drove it into the ground far enough that they hit the freaking Moho.
They Pay-For version on Steam, and probably the updated free Mod Version is looking at the difficulty, specifically the HECU soldiers having a split second reaction time.
http://imgur.com/MIyizeF
You did that on purpose, didn’t you.
He’s done it, what, 6 times already? By now I’m hoping it’s on purpose. That, or he’s got an NDA with Valve and is trying to get out a message.
I’m pretty sure it’s only happened 3 times.
I doubt it will happen again.
You should find a way to make it so that you have justification to reset the footnotes mid-article, then end up pulling it twice in one article, with the last reset ending on footnote 2 and just not ever getting to 3.
I’m not sure how’d you justify pulling it off, but you totally should.
“After 15 minutes they kept telling me to reload” XD
Absolutely CREASING with laughter.
At 19:10 the rebel/resistance, have a voice clip, commenting on your going back, through. They anticipated you maybe falling off that ledge and having to backtrack. Sweet.
Also, 20:40 Chris says you need more debates. So, you want a mass, of debates. XD
“Woah… Deja Vu”
At 19:10 the rebel/resistance, have a voice clip, commenting on your going back, through. They anticipated you maybe falling off that ledge and having to backtrack. Sweet.
Also, 20:40 Chris says you need more debates. So, you want a mass, of debates. XD
I’m sure the Spoiler Warning crew are proficient master debaters at this point. They even have a fine eye for choosing rooms to debate in
What is it with Shamus and sex in this episode :)
And what will Heather say when she learns that her husband and father of their children is looking where he will have sex on the side in a zombie infested wasteland. ;)
She will buy a headcrab plushy and wear it next time.
“Reload, Doctor Freeman!”
“Here take this medkit!”
As long as it’s a barrel of pun it’s ok I guess?
I really love the way the gunship crashes into the roof. The first time I played through this, I saw it coming and jumped to the lower level as it got hung up on the top level, an I felt like I had narrowly escaped this ironic death after an epic fight that tore the building apart.
There may not be much new in this episode, but the way they use old mechanics and enemies with new flair is brilliant.
It’s a great moment. Most games, though, would probably say “Hey let’s make the gunship fall on the player and kill him unless he jumps out of the way!” And then put it in a cutscene with a QTE.
OK, how about an occasional series where you do “Retro Design Classics” where you play an old game (like Silent Hill 2, Thief or System Shock II) but critique the game design for the whole Silent Hill, Thief or *Shock series? Talk about the games design, voice acting , mechanics..all the stuff you liked and didn’t like about how it evolved..and then if you had a free hand on the sequel, where you’d like to go with it – story, features, characters etc.
If you made it about an hour per special (1-2 episodes) that would give you enough time to talk about the game and discuss all the finer points of various gaming franchises without being committed to a 30 episode SW playthrough and would act as a palate cleanser whilst you’re wondering what to do next.
System Shock 1?
I was thinking of a fully patched version of System Shock II from GOG, but people have got System Shock running on Windows via dosbox really well. There’s even some mods included (like mouselook) to make it easier to play. It’s not so bad these days to play a classic retro game like SS1.
https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=211.0
I like the downtime between intense bits in games. That’s what makes good pacing, and why I didn”t like Arkham City nearly as much as Arkham Asylum. I don’t know if that’s what you mean by relief.
Incidentally, the best feeling that a videogame’s ever given me is the feeling after being past the bridge in Anor Londo in Dark Souls.
I feel like the moral of this episode is, “If at first you don’t screw up, jump off and do it again.”.
The explosive room in half life 1 was a rocket storage.Thats why you had explosives and rocket fuel all around.And the tripmines were just a bonus.
Always store your tripmines armed. That way, they’re ready the moment you need them.
I figured that was the military trying to secure the facility… since they had snipers and soldiers and land mines all around it, they must not have wanted anyone in there.
Am I the only one who never wastes ammo on barnacles?I always let it get me up and then crowbar it to death.
Me too. Pretty sure that broke my legs at least once, though.
Gravity gun was done elsewhere,yes,but I dont think it was done better.
Maybe that time manipulator gun you get in….shit,what was the name of that forgettable game where you do time stuff in russia?
Are you thinking about Singularity?
Yes,thats the one.
Singularity. I kind of liked that one actually, still had to look up the name of it.
Guys,you do know that they can make an innovative and fun game without adding some new gimmick gun,right?I mean thats what they did with half life 1.Half life 2 has that number there for a reason,its a sequel,it wasnt the original.You dont have to compare every single game that comes afterwards with it.
Yeah, I took issue with that as well. I mean, I can think of a couple gimmicks Valve could add, of course, but the idea that the Gravity Gun, for example is somehow this inconsequential thing is something I strongly disagree with. It’s still a fun and fantastic tool. It’s as iconic to Half-Life now as the crowbar. And I’m not sure that anyone else has done it better (if they’ve even done it at all).
I dedicate this song to Shamus.Thanks for the laughs.
Shamus,why dont you suggest system shock 2?I mean even the star trek guy got to it before you.And you call yourself a fan.
Probably suffers from the same issue as Half-Life One – it’s too old for the commentary to be timely. Plus, we’d all die of alcohol poisoning by Shamus going all fanboy on us.
Actually, might be worse, because there’s a Fall-Out One remake on the current Source engine. If you recall the brief madness when they tried to set up and record the original Deus Ex, it’s possible older games will present major problems…
If Chuck is doing it,then no,everything has not been said about it.And he did say that he is using the steam version,so recording shouldnt be a problem.
With a lot of compound words (like videogames) there seems to be a progression where it’ll start off as two words and end up as one, sometimes with a hyphen for a while in the middle. Basically, if you still put the space in there you’re old-fashioned :P
Except not, because then you also need to talk about computergames and boardgames. So it’s clearly video games – so sayeth C&VG… from 1981 onwards; hmmm, maybe you have a point with this “old-fashioned” thing. :p
I go one further: When talking about a specific game, I would write “videogame” as one word, but if talking about the medium as a whole, or comparing it to other types of games, I would usually write “video game”.
Interestingly, the spellcheck on this computer highlights “videogame” as being a spelling error.
Video killed the radio game.
I heard it on the wireless back in ’85.
We hear the playback and it seems so long ago.
…we can’t rewind, we’ve gone too far… :(
I just add videogame to all my spellcheckers. Language can only evolve if each of is ready to be a part of the future.
I beat new programs with virtual crowbars until their spellcheckers fall off, and I wish I could do the same to search engines. “Showing results for this other thing since you’re clearly too stupid to know what you’re searching for.” No. Stop helping me! I hate all this automated sabotage disguised as “assistance” and hailed as the greatest thing since sliced bread. I’m perfectly capable of slicing my own bread thank you very much, so I’ll have my knife back right now if you don’t mind. What? No I’m not going to stab you in the database again, just don’t try to autocorrect me! Now perform a search for stronger medication you stupid bot, I don’t think this current one is working too well. Take your time, I’ll be over at YouTube stabbing the recommendation algorithm.
Josh’s failure as performance art and Cuftbertian tactics were the most hilarious thing I’ve seen this week.
Thank you.
If you’re deadlocked for what game to play next, I think the best solution would be for you to record some deathmatch game where you fight to see who gets their choice.
Magicka.
Yes! Magicka is good for that…or for a short SW.
magicka would be a hilarious short season, especially if josh has never played it before. Let’s just say there are a lot of creative ways to get yourself killed in that game. (Also I died in the tutorial… magic is dangerous :P)
They need to do one episode of magicka where all of them are talking like the swedish chef all the time.
Personally, I still think this is the optimal way to choose which game to play.
I mean, who has a hat just lying around?
At 11:16, is the man on the car with the rocket launcher floating?
You just don’t get how amazing it is to be near Gordon Freeman, do you?
Re: The Gravity Gun in HL3
I’m guessing the Gravity Gun will still be there, but it’ll either be supplanted by another weapon, or it’ll be added onto. Some ideas:
– It shoots a ball of light that acts like a linear-traveling black hole, pulling all objects (including fired rounds) towards it as it passes.
– Like the Portal Gun, it can affect two (or more) surfaces, each shot temporarily making the surface it hits to be “down.” For example, shooting it straight up makes the ceiling into the floor, pulling you to it (until it wears off). Puzzles would involve wall-crawling and trying to move past said areas before the grav effect dissipates.
– It causes objects to behave as if it’s unaffected by gravity. You could make floating platforms or projectiles that can bump enemies, move other objects, etc.
– “Shamus Mode” makes any target immediately want to have sex with Gordon (even more than usual).
Dur guys! The so called “Infinite rocket” caches are just examples of Apeture Science hard at work for you, the post-apocalyptic consumer! They are merely a multi-phasic portal that finds the nearest armory and accesses it to provide you with the rockets you need to blow up whatever you want! When one supply is empty it move on to the next to provide you with the best customer service experience possible!
Eh, just want to say that after watching this episode I finally made a Patreon account to support you and Spoiler Warning a little. (I’m under a different alias on Patreon though, can never have too much of those. Or 30 character passwords)
Keep doing the good work Shamus and crew. And congrats on tripling your Patreon best estimative.
Video Space Games are my favourite kind!
Keeping my fingers crossed for a season of Walking Dead Season 2. You guys hardly talk about as it is.
But then I’d have to play it instead of letting it clutter up my backlog…
It is pretty good, had to play it straight away. Although in my personal opinion, it is not as nearly as good as Season 1. Could be that i could hardly identfy myself playing as a 11 year old girl or because the relation between Lee and Clementine was what made Season 1 so good and touching.
Curious what the different opinions of the cast are on it.
I thought it was as good as it could be, the great part of the first was like you said, that relationship between Lee and Clementine and that is not exactly something you can just bottle up.
Deliberately played it the other week just in case it was next on the SW rotation. Some games I wouldn’t care but I think TWD benefits from playing through first and forming your own impressions.
I liked it – it never hit quite the same emotional spots that the first game did but it was still very good. Clementine stayed believable – she’s a survivor and hardened by loss but she’s still a kid and the idea that she is looking for a parent figure (Jane or Luke or
Kenny) seems sound.On the topic of “special” guns for Half Life 3, how about a gun that turns on Superhot mode?
My understanding is that the Barney of HL2 is indeed the one knocking at the door at the very beginning. That’s the same Barney of Blue Shift. And also my understanding is that Blue Shift and Opposing Force are essentially considered canon until Marc Laidlaw makes an actual decision on the issue. The fans certainly consider both canon and want to know what happened to Adrian Shephard!
If Valve never releases HL3 but releases Opposing Force 2 where Shephard has become some sort of Gman-sanctioned mercenary for the Combine and the game takes place in alien planets fighting for the Combine against other aliens that are being coquered I’d still die happy.
I’m not really surprised Shamus is loving Half Life 2. I mean, considering that he’s always loved it before now, why would playing it through again change it?
At 17:41, Josh dies for no apparent reason – it’s actually a relatively unknown bug in the new engine of half life 2 – if you stand on top of a headcrab and punt it with the gravity gun, you will instantly die.
Here’s what I’m pretty sure is happening – headcrabs are one of the only enemies you can punt, so when you do, they go flying in the other direction.
But when you stand on top of one and shoot down, the headcrab is forced down into the floor. Obviously the game doesn’t want this to happen. In the new engine of half life 2, when the developers didn’t want a particular motion to happen, they just added code that accelerates the object in the other direction – that’s how speedrunners can achieve ridiculous speeds with “Accelerated Backwards Hopping” – they fool the game into thinking they are going forwards, so the game continuously subtracts forward velocity from them. This means that (as long as they go backwards) they just get faster and faster.
Anyway, the headcrab -when you punt it down into the floor, the game just says “nope, I’m going to counteract that by accelerating it in the opposite direction” – that is. into you. Because of the weight of the headcrab and the fact that the game is overcompensating for the huge amounts of velocity you put into the headcrab, the force is high enough for the physics engine to just say “Welp, you’re dead.”
And that was why Josh died.
EDIT: The reason why the gunship makes a metal sound is because it’s a cyborg – the combine advisors almost never get physically involved in taking over a planet, they just combine their inhabitants with technology to make brain washed soldiers. That’s what all the foot-soldiers in the game are – humans that have been brainwashed and turned into cyborgs. Same with that gunship, it used to be a living thing, but it’s been meshed with so many mechanic elements that it’s more of a robot with a bit of flesh than a flesh thing with some robot bits.