T w e n t y S i d e d
Link (YouTube) |
Language and literary references? What is becoming of this show? Can’t we complain about plot and obsess over lighting and level design techniques?
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Deus Ex Human Revolution EP27:The Icarus Funicular”
Free Radical: Free Thread
By request, I wanted to open up a thread for people to discuss my first book, Free Radical, which is still available for free. (Bottom of page.) There’s also a print version available at cost. You can also read the venerable webpage version that started it all.
He realized that he wasn’t getting out of there. He had come to this conclusion at some point during his run down the stairs. There was just no way he was going to escape though the net of police that was surely making its way up through the building. For him, it was no longer a question of how he would escape, but how far he would get before they brought him down. This gave him a kind of sick desperation that fueled him onward. He was no longer running for his life – he was already dead. Instead, he was running out of spite, out of sheer stubbornness and vengeance. They were going to get him, and he was going to make them work for it. He was going to see how far he could get before they stopped him. Nescio had been right after all.
So: Discuss the events of the book, the themes, the characters, the technology, or whatever else interests you. Feel free to ask questions if you like, although you might be surprised at how little I know beyond what’s already on the page.
This thread is intended for people who have finished the book, and the entire thread should be considered spoilers. No need to use spoiler tags.
Witch Watch: Digital Edition Available
As some people noticed last week, my book is already for sale on Amazon, due to some screw-up or misunderstanding on our part. This stealth release actually worked out really well: One nasty error and a couple of trivial ones had crept in during our final round of formatting, and these early readers caught them before it went out to the masses. (Or went into printing!)
So, since the door is open, I might as well start spreading the news: The Witch Watch (digital edition) is now available for sale. The print edition will go live this Friday, March 2nd. For a full list of all the ways you can buy this thing, check my author page.
And before you ask…
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Witch Watch: Digital Edition Available”
Borderlands:The Loot Lottery
One advantage of running blog is that – unlike a major gaming site – I can spend time talking about three year old games, or ten year old games, or whatever else strikes my fancy. I am not obliged to be forever chasing the horizon with regards to new releases. In a recent post, Leslee Beldotti asked this about Borderlands 2:
Nooooooooo! For the love of all that's only sort of holy, why on earth would you want more guns???
A reasonable question. I mean, there were millions of possible guns in Borderlands. Why add more to Borderlands 2?
 |
Borderlands is a strange beast. On the surface it seems like your typical empowerment fantasy: You are a singular force of destruction, slaughtering your way through beasts and bandits that are so uncompromisingly evil that you can feel like your killing is a public service. See also: Serious Sam, Doom, Quake, Painkiller, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Homefront, Prey, Resistance, Killzone, etc etc etc. You can dominate like a badass and feel virtuous at the same time.
But underneath all the shooting is a game more like Diablo, which is a looting system that hooks into our hunter-gatherer instincts and drives players to search and hoard. You’re foraging for firearms, basically. It also hooks into typical gambling compulsions. (Which may actually be the same thing. I don’t know enough to argue about it. I’ll leave that to the behaviorists.)
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Borderlands:The Loot Lottery”
Deus Ex Human Revolution EP26: Men Never Fail To Underestimate Elevators
Link (YouTube) |
And so ends a most bizarre week of Spoiler Warning. Though, given where we are in the game, all this weirdness and stupidity is almost fitting.
Particularly in this episode.
This would have been up yesterday, but youtube ran into an odd audio sync error – one I’ve never encountered before – when I uploaded it the first time. I ended up having to upload the whole video over again.
Experienced Points: A little Less (Dumb) Conversation
Skyrim, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Mass Effect 2 each have their own ideas about how interactive dialog scenes should work. So do I, which I discuss in this week’s column.
Witch Watch: Proofs
It’s here. It’s been printed out and everything. I’m publishing a book. This is a thing that is happening. It’s one thing to hear people say they want to read it, or have them read it and pretend to enjoy it because they like me. It’s another thing to hold the completed product in my hands and realize, “Wow. If this doesn’t pan out I’ve wasted an amazing amount of time. This is terrifying. But these illustrations sure are nice.”
 |
These are the proof copies. I’ve gotta flip through one and look for errors. Then we apply the changes to the print copy. Then it goes up for sale, for real, and we’ll finally get to see if all of this pans out. If you’re one of my proofreaders, you’re getting one of the volumes you see above. I’ll be signing them and dropping them in the mail right away eventually.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Witch Watch: Proofs”
From The Archives:
Bethesda’s Launcher is Everything You Expect
From the company that brought us Fallout 76 comes a storefront / Steam competitor. It's a work of perfect awfulness. This is a monument to un-usability and anti-features.
The Opportunity Crunch
No, brutal, soul-sucking, marriage-destroying crunch mode in game development isn't a privilege or an opportunity. It's idiocy.
Video Compression Gone Wrong
How does image compression work, and why does it create those ugly spots all over some videos and not others?
The Best of 2018
I called 2018 "The Year of Good News". Here is a list of the games I thought were interesting or worth talking about that year.
Blistering Stupidity of Fallout 3
Yeah, this game is a classic. But the story is idiotic, incoherent, thematically confused, and patronizing.
Best. Plot Twist. Ever.
Few people remember BioWare's Jade Empire, but it had a unique setting and a really well-executed plot twist.
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.
I Was Wrong About Borderlands 3
I really thought one thing, but then something else. There's a bunch more to it, but you'll have to read the article.
Seven Springs
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.
Charging More for a Worse Product
No, game prices don't "need" to go up. That's not how supply and demand works. Instead, the publishers need to be smarter about where they spend their money.