Twenty Sided

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Jan 19, 2016

Filed under: Personal 47 comments

If you had asked me yesterday how important Twitter was to me I’d have said, “Meh. I check it once an hour or so, post a few messages a day.” And that’s technically true. But it wasn’t until now that I realized just how integral the service is to my internet habits.

Twitter has been down for about 3 hours, and I keep getting caught in these stupid little obsessive behavioral loops:

It’s about time to check Twitter. Huh. Twitter is down? The whole service? What happened?
I should check Twitter to see what people are saying about Twitter… being… oh.
Ha! I just tried to check Twitter to read why I can’t get to Twitter. That’s a funny anecdote. I should post that to…
Oh damn it. I wonder if any of my friends are doing the same silly reflexive thing. I should check…
OH COME ON. STOP THAT.
Now I’m irritated with myself and Twitter. When that kind of thing happens I usually complain on…
This is hopeless.

I would never have guessed the service was this important to my information diet, but there you go. I can’t believe we’re supposed to be the smartest mammals on this planet. This is disgraceful.

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.

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Diecast #137: Amplitude, Cradle, Slime Ranching

By Shamus Posted Monday Jan 18, 2016

Filed under: Diecast 85 comments

 Diecast #136: Oculus Rift, Cibele, Skyrim ModsPrevious Post

Next PostDiecast #138: Pony Island, Dragon's Dogma 

Direct download (MP3)
Direct download (ogg Vorbis)
Podcast RSS feed.

Hosts: Josh, Rutskarn, Campster, Mumbles. Episode edited by Josh.

The show is late. There are no show notes. I am not in this episode. The answers behind these mysteries are bound together: My daughter Rachel – who edits these things – turned 18 this weekend, and I was at her party. Also, her graphics card died, meaning she can’t use her computer until the replacement arrives.

But Josh came through and edited the episode. Rachel’s new card will arrive tomorrow. Things should be back to normal-ish next week.

Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #137: Amplitude, Cradle, Slime Ranching”

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.

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Experienced Points: Why I’m Cynical About System Shock 3

By Shamus Posted Monday Jan 18, 2016

Filed under: Column 70 comments

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My column this week is why I suspect that System Shock 3 isn’t going to have the stuff I loved about System Shock 2.

Honestly, if this industry was capable of making System Shock 3, it would have. Last time somebody tried we got BioShock, which was profitable, popular, critically acclaimed, and not at all what I wanted. It was a fine game on its own merits, but it was missing most of the major features that made System Shock special to me. It was just “pretty smart, for a shooter”. Replacing Andrew Ryan with Shodan isn’t going to magically transform BioShock back into System Shock.

This is not to say that System Shock 2 was a perfect game. This goes double for System Shock 1. It’s just that they represent a kind of game that nobody wants to fund, develop, or market in today’s AAA world.

I really hope that in a year or so I’ll get to write a column about how wrong I was about this, but this is how things look to me right now.

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.

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New Year’s Hangout: Left 4 Dead 2

By Shamus Posted Friday Jan 15, 2016

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 28 comments

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Link (YouTube)

I had other things going on, so I’m sorry I missed this part of the stream. I love the original Left 4 Dead campaigns and characters.

I’ve never played realism mode so I probably would have been a massive liability. Which makes me even more sad that I missed it. If I’d been there I might have prevented them from attaining such a glorious pro-level victory.

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.

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New Year’s Hangout: Crusader Kings II

By Shamus Posted Thursday Jan 14, 2016

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 24 comments

 Knights of the Old Republic EP42: The Three TrialsPrevious Post

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During the new year, we got together and watched Josh play some incomprehensible game about maps and dialog boxes? Or something? Anyway, here it is, for those who missed it.

Link (YouTube)

This is the first half of the hangout. In the second half everyone played Left 4 Dead. That will go up tomorrow.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be on Spoiler Warning with us, here is your chance to see for yourself. This is what we do every week before recording the show: Fifteen minutes of incomprehensible dicking around, troubleshooting inscrutable problems and cussing at wayward technology.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “New Year’s Hangout: Crusader Kings II”

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.

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Mass Effect Retrospective 30: Suicide Mission

By Shamus Posted Thursday Jan 14, 2016

Filed under: Mass Effect 284 comments

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I’ve spent most of this series complaining about aspects of Mass Effect 2 that a majority of fansCompletely anecdotal. I have no idea what the “real” consensus is out there. don’t see is a problem. So let me briefly be a contrarian in the other direction and defend something everyone complains about: I think the Suicide Mission was a really interesting idea. I think it was a thematically appropriate way to wrap up a game that focused so much on preparation and team-building. It was the first time the series really did anything with the concept of Shepard being a military commander aside from him always leading 3-person teams into gunfights. It justified the large team size and it gave you an in-game reward for doing all those loyalty missions.

Sure, there are problems with how the suicide mission plays out. But unlike the problems with the plot, premise, and dialog, these aren’t baffling failures at basic tasks. The suicide mission was a new idea not just to BioWare but to AAA RPGs in general. It was challenging, it was different, and so its shortcomings are a lot more understandable in a game design sense.

The Suicide Mission

BUT WHAT DO THEY EAT? I'm joking. I don't care.

The Normandy goes through the Omega-4 relay to the collector base. There’s a little space battle that reacts to the decisions you’ve made regarding your ship. If you’ve been doing the research, talking to allies, gathering resources, and paying for the upgrades, then the characters will respond. “Gosh! Good thing we upgraded the anti-decombobulator!” If you haven’t, then the bad guys blow holes in the Normandy and maybe some squad members might die.

After that the Normandy lands on the Collector base and you get to divide your people into teams and tasks. If a job calls for someone with technical skills, then you can select anyone with any technical knowledge. This, combined with whether or not you did their loyalty mission, determines if they survive performing the task.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Mass Effect Retrospective 30: Suicide Mission”

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.

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Knights of the Old Republic EP42: The Three Trials

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Jan 13, 2016

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 73 comments

 Knights of the Old Republic EP41: OminousPrevious Post

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Link (YouTube)

And so our thrilling game of Second Edition D&D comes to an end. I managed to survive my serious case of self-inflicted deadly poison long enough to wander off to do the job, alone, with incomplete information. Josh cast his one spell and had to take a nap. Chris took no actions whatsoever, thereby making him the winner by virtue of being the person to make the fewest number of idiotic blunders.

Also there was something about Jedi and fish people in there? I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention to that stuff.

The D&D seems to have gone over well. We’re currently talking about maybe doing some more of this, perhaps outside of Spoiler Warning. We’ll see.

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.

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