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Mass Effect Retrospective 43: Interesting Stupid

By Shamus Posted Thursday Apr 14, 2016

Filed under: Mass Effect 247 comments
Mass Effect Retrospective 42: A Thoughtless CoupPrevious Post
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Shepard continues his tour of the galaxy, selling dubious hope in exchange for direct military support from people who are really going to need those military units in the near future. Today he’s giving his sales pitch to the Quarians.

Admiral Idiot

If we're going to go extinct, then we're going to do so while standing on a planet, because that's better somehow!
If we're going to go extinct, then we're going to do so while standing on a planet, because that's better somehow!

The Quarians became space-nomads centuries ago when they built robots that eventually became “self-aware”. Worried of a robot uprising, they tried to destroy the robots. This led to a robot uprising, and they got their asses kicked off their own homeworld. Since then they’ve been flying around the galaxy in a huge fleet of ramshackle patchwork ships, dreaming of the day when they could retake their homeworld. It’s a good story that adds some interesting historical context to the universe, and has ramifications throughout the world of Mass Effect.

The Quarian fleet is broken into sections. Some ships are military, but most are simply homes and places to grow food for the Quarian people: The “live ships”That’s “live” as in “live wire”, not “live long”. English is annoying sometimes.. A lot of their ships are old and in a perpetual state of being refurbished.

Admiral Han’Gerrel is our villain in this story. He’s stuck guns on the Live Ships and launched an attack on the Quarian homeworld. He was doing okay until the Geth teamed up with the Reapers. Now the Reapers are giving the Geth some sort of mental upgrade via a broadcasted signalJust go with it. and it’s making them more dangerous opponents. The Geth have now pinned the Quarian fleets – basically 99% of every Quarian alive right now – and are going to overwhelm and destroy them if we don’t do something soon.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Mass Effect Retrospective 43: Interesting Stupid”

 

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.

Mass Effect Retrospective 42: A Thoughtless CoupPrevious Post
Next PostMass Effect Retrospective 44: Boss Fight

247 comments

 

SOMA EP7: Good Robot!

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Apr 13, 2016

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 23 comments
SOMA EP6: Under The SeaPrevious Post
Next PostSOMA EP8: Handwavium


Link (YouTube)

Contrary to convention, I actually find myself liking SOMA more now that we’re covering it on the show. I think this is a game that benefits from repeated playthroughs to map out all the various character stories, explore the different choices, and listen to dialog with the benefit of second-playthrough foresight.

On the other hand, the gameplay generally wears out its welcome before the first playthough is complete. Pity.

 

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.

SOMA EP6: Under The SeaPrevious Post
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23 comments

 

Ruts vs. Battlespire CH4: BAbagsGS

By Rutskarn Posted Wednesday Apr 13, 2016

Filed under: Lets Play 41 comments
Ruts vs. Battlespire CH3: Disco FeverPrevious Post
Next PostRuts vs. Battlespire CH5: Aches and Planes

There’s no way around it; I am lost. Deeply, passionately, irreparably lost. I’m not sure where this space is relative to anywhere else and I’m not sure it even matters, as space and time themselves seem capricious, aloof, even spiteful. I gave up getting out of here fully intact some time ago. Now I’d settle for retaining just a shred of sanity, just an ounce of vitality–some souvenir of the man I was before I entered this hateful parallel dimension beyond mortal understanding.

I’m talking, of course, about my inventory screen.

Let’s take a modest gander. And by “modest gander,” I mean let’s settle once and for all how overbearingly asinine this system is so I can move on to grousing about bigger and better things. Behold:

Made up of equal parts polished art and elegant design.
Made up of equal parts polished art and elegant design.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Ruts vs. Battlespire CH4: BAbagsGS”

 

Rutskarn is a writer, author, wordsmith, text producer, article deviser, prose architect, and accredited language-talker. If you enjoy his contributions to this site you could always back his Patreon.

Ruts vs. Battlespire CH3: Disco FeverPrevious Post
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41 comments

 

Good Robot: The Lost Trailer

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Apr 12, 2016

Filed under: Good Robot 56 comments
Good Robot Achievement BountyPrevious Post
Next PostGood Robot #48: Bringing Balance

So sometimes ideas don’t pan out. This is one of those cases:


Link (YouTube)

Looking at the feedback on YouTube, I can see there’s a divide between, “This joke totally made sense to me” and “This was awkward and dumb”. Maybe that would be tolerable for an early teaser, but when it comes to a launch trailer you want clarity and a wide appeal.

A common complaint was that the stock footage of robots conflicted with the in-game footage. That’s true, although I don’t know how that could be fixed. For the first half of the trailer you need slow-paced shots. There’s only so many slow pans you can do over the Good Robot, and there’s no way you can fill 40 seconds with that. The game doesn’t have a supporting cast or dialog scenes, which is what you’d use for the slow build in the first half of the trailer.

Maybe that should have clued me in that this idea was flawed and unworkable, but… I dunno. I’ve had a lot of projects that began with a single fun idea and were fuzzy on the details. DM of the Rings is a good example of something that began half-formed and then came together later during production. Sometimes when you’ve got an idea you have to run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes.

 

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.

Good Robot Achievement BountyPrevious Post
Next PostGood Robot #48: Bringing Balance

56 comments

 

Diecast #148: XCom 2, Factorio, Good Robot Launch

By Shamus Posted Monday Apr 11, 2016

Filed under: Diecast 103 comments
Diecast #147: Disney, DC Universe, LA NoirePrevious Post
Next PostDiecast #149: Eve Online, Town of Salem, Dark Souls III

Behold! A spectacle unseen on the internet: Three guys talking about videogames for an hour! Be stupefied as we unleash outlandish opinions such as “I really like a thing” and “This other thing isn’t at all to my liking”. Tell your friends!



Direct link to this episode.

Hosts: Josh, Rutskarn, Shamus.

Episode edited by Issac.

Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #148: XCom 2, Factorio, Good Robot Launch”

 

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.

Diecast #147: Disney, DC Universe, LA NoirePrevious Post
Next PostDiecast #149: Eve Online, Town of Salem, Dark Souls III

103 comments

 

Lord of the Rings Online #7: Ledger Legendarium

By Shamus Posted Sunday Apr 10, 2016

Filed under: Shamus Plays 13 comments
Lord of the Rings Online #6: Bong! Bring out Yer Dead!Previous Post
Next PostLord of the Rings Online #8: Bandit Boy

If you remember from last time, Uncle Filbert blundered into the heart of the brigand stronghold and said rude things to them. Instead of gutting him, they took his handkerchief and sent him home. For some reason, I’ve agreed to help him get it back. Maybe I’m being nice to him because he’s a fellow Hobbit. Maybe I’m just an incredible idiot.

Getting to the handkerchief thieves is not easy. I have to go deep into the bandit-infested woods. I have to kill more than a few ruffians on the way.

At last I reach the ruins where they are holding Filbert’s frilly nose-blowing aid. This place is going to be a tough nut to crack…

Yow. Most of the guys on this side of the woods are a few levels above me.
Yow. Most of the guys on this side of the woods are a few levels above me.

These lot look like hardened criminals.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Lord of the Rings Online #7: Ledger Legendarium”

 

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.

Lord of the Rings Online #6: Bong! Bring out Yer Dead!Previous Post
Next PostLord of the Rings Online #8: Bandit Boy

13 comments

 

Rutskarn’s GMinars: Introduction

By Rutskarn Posted Saturday Apr 9, 2016

Filed under: Tabletop Games 66 comments
Rutskarn's RPG System Hoedown, Part 2: The Latter DragonsPrevious Post
Next PostRutskarn's GMinars CH1: Your Job

When I got the chance to design and run my first Dungeons and Dragons adventure, I spent more time on it than I did any twenty of my grade-school assignments that year. The document I eventually completed was a rambling ill-stapled mess, an exhaustively plotted town and desert fort and disjointed prophecy cobbled from equal parts book materials and doodles and random numbers. I’m not sure which I understood less about going in–my own setting, the principles of storytelling, or absolutely any of the game’s rules.

Things didn’t get any smoother when I ran it. As my uncle obligingly delved the dungeon I’d made, I stammered through area descriptions, second-guessed the bizarre layout, and struggled to figure out who hit (and how hard) every single time we touched the dice. Eventually the game rattled and rambled to its abrupt conclusion and boss battle–a skeleton giant (probably based on King Leoric) inexplicably standing guard outside the goblin fort. Waiting, apparently, for my uncle to come out and duel it.

Well, my uncle didn’t. He saw the massive skeleton, shut the door, and barred it. Which puzzled me–what the hell was I supposed to do about him not engaging the boss battle? That didn’t happen in Diablo. Why hadn’t I planned for this?

I wish I could say that was my genius moment of inspiration. Nope. My narration was that by the time he did open the door, much later, a sandstorm had blown the skeleton boss apart and scattered his bones. And so concluded my first-ever session.

You can do better than that.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Rutskarn’s GMinars: Introduction”

 

Rutskarn is a writer, author, wordsmith, text producer, article deviser, prose architect, and accredited language-talker. If you enjoy his contributions to this site you could always back his Patreon.

Rutskarn's RPG System Hoedown, Part 2: The Latter DragonsPrevious Post
Next PostRutskarn's GMinars CH1: Your Job

66 comments

 
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