T w e n t y S i d e d
A fan-made Half-Life 2 movie. Like the game itself, it’s light on plot and heavy on atmosphere:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Escape From City 17”
Experienced Points: The Day One DLC Trap
It’s about time I brought Stardock into the discussion. They really are the dark horse among publishers. They really do things their own way.
I haven’t tried Impulse (their content delivery platform) since launch. At the time it was a little short on features and titles. I set it aside and forgot about it. I think I’m going to get Mass Effect 2 through them and compare the system to Steam. (Plus, the game is FOUR WHOLE CENTS cheaper! Score!)
Stolen Pixels #164: Rollie the Roleplayer
Torchlight takes the “R” out of RPG.
I didn’t really review Torchlight because I felt like I’d already reviewed it. I will say that it shows that you don’t need to innovate very much as long as you have strong art direction and well-polished gameplay.
Spoiler Warning:
Mass Effect Part 1
I hear you saying, “Shamus – it’s all right if I call you Shamus, right? Great. Anyway, It’s nice that you’re making Stolen Pixels, Shamus Plays LotRO, reposting Chainmail Bikini with commentary, writing on your blog, doing the weekly Experienced Points column, making a text adventure, and even putting out the occasional video, but I’m kind of feeling like you’re not making enough content for me.”
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Spoiler Warning:
Mass Effect Part 1″
Shamus Plays LOTRO: Part 2
I hope you’re enjoying these because they’re fun to write and I’m not inclined to stop.
Best Writing of 2009
As a counter to the silly list of laughable writing lauded by the Writer’s Guild, I suppose I should provide my own list of games. I’m not going to limit my list to members of a particular union, but instead I’ll simply look for stuff that’s actually good.
In no particular order:
Dragon Age
Not the best work BioWare has ever done, but it was a decent yarn with some fun characters.
Secret of Monkey Island
Hey, a re-release is still a release. Aside: Oh delight and rapture, the re-release was wonderful.
Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled
Okay, I worked on this one so I should disqualify it. Still, if you’re into Final Fantasy 4 style jRPG games, this one should do nicely.
Lord of the Rings Online
Not a 2009 release, but as an MMO it’s always under development. I saw it for the first time in 2009, so it’s new as far as I’m concerned.
I could rip the game to bits for all of the crazy compromises it makes to shoehorn MMO gameplay into a setting that was almost completely at odds with such a concept. I still get a little crazy if I think about it too much.
But they were careful to honor the language, the lands, and the tone of the original work. Considering the origin of the books as a linguistics project, this is quite fitting. They were faithful where possible, and made compromises when they had to. In the end they managed to adapt Middle Earth to the often absurd world of MMO gameplay while preserving its dignity. This is a great accomplishment and there are precious few developers who could hope to do as well.
Dear Esther
Okay, I’m clearly cheating now. Dear Esther came out in 2008. I played it for the first time a few months ago, and it haunted me for days. It’s a free mod for Valve’s Source Engine.
The game doesn’t fit into any existing genre. I guess I’d call it an exploration narrative.
Champions Online
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Whoops. Need to take my inhaler. Just laughed myself into an asthma attack.
While I’m doing that, go ahead and nominate games you thought were well written. The rules:
1) The game must be from 2009
2) Or not.
Lumines
I was serious when I likened Lumines to Tetris. The elegance of the gameplay has a “why didn’t anyone think of this before?” thing going on. Simple. Pure. Captivating.
Having said that, I think the game fails at a couple of crucial points. In its natural state, the game is a system of organizing binary data in time to electronic music. This game is essentially a drug for people with my particular mental makeup. The mixture of left brain provocation (introducing disorder to a system which the player must combat through sorting) and right brain stimulation (the music) is the kind of thing that causes me to completely lose track of time.
The problem comes with the different “skins” in the game. Every three-ish minutes, the game completely re-invents itself. The pieces change color and appearance. The music changes. The animated background changes. The rhythm changes. Most of these skins are like this one:
From The Archives:
DM of the Rings
Both a celebration and an evisceration of tabletop roleplaying games, by twisting the Lord of the Rings films into a D&D game.
This is Why We Can’t Have Short Criticism
Here's how this site grew from short essays to novel-length quasi-analytical retrospectives.
Shamus Plays WOW
Ever wondered what's in all those quest boxes you've never bothered to read? Get ready: They're more insane than you might expect.
Best. Plot Twist. Ever.
Few people remember BioWare's Jade Empire, but it had a unique setting and a really well-executed plot twist.
Mass Effect Retrospective
A novel-sized analysis of the Mass Effect series that explains where it all went wrong. Spoiler: It was long before the ending.
The Dumbest Cutscene
This is it. This is the dumbest cutscene ever created for a AAA game. It's so bad it's simultaneously hilarious and painful. This is "The Room" of video game cutscenes.
Bethesda NEVER Understood Fallout
Let's count up the ways in which Bethesda has misunderstood and misused the Fallout property.
Silent Hill Turbo HD II
I was trying to make fun of how Silent Hill had lost its way but I ended up making fun of fighting games. Whatever.
Grand Theft Auto Retrospective
This series began as a cheap little 2D overhead game and grew into the most profitable entertainment product ever made. I have a love / hate relationship with the series.
Mass Effect 3 Ending Deconstruction
Did you dislike the ending to the Mass Effect trilogy? Here's my list of where it failed logically, thematically, and tonally.