T w e n t y S i d e d

How do you feel about meandering? Is this something you like to do? Are you down for a good meander now and again? If so, then this episode has been lovingly crafted with your particular needs in mind. Both our character and our conversation are rudderless. Adrift. Directionless.

This episode does provide a nice showcase for Bethesda’s questing system, which the design team nicknamed, “Screw You For Trying To Play Your Character, Fanboy.”

We’re done recording this season of Spoiler Warning. All done. If my math is right then the final episode of Fallout 3 will appear on August 10. It’s just as well. These bodyguards are costing me a fortune, and the Bethesda assassins are bolder and more desperate with each passing week.

Also, we lost track of time so this episode is crazy long. Whoops.

Rock climbing Joel, rock climbing.

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.

There’s an episode of MST3K that features about ten thousand hours of rock climbing and nine seconds of stop-motion dinosaurs. You could tell it was almost an endurance test for the crew, and as the episode went on they would just say “rock climbing” to describe how they were feeling. Among my gaming group we adopted this for times when something – a story, movie, game, vegetable platter, etc – would go on for far too long and become a test of will. (We also say, “From the people who brought you that last stuff, it’s… more of the same!”. But only on special occasions because it’s so verbose.)

I wanted to say “rock climbing” all during this episode. (I didn’t, because it would have been a meaningless non-sequitur.) But still, this is starting to feel like rock climbing. The nonsense plot. Our endless bitching. The relentless brownness. The glitches. Railroading. If it’s of any comfort, we’ll have nicer things to say about the next game.

And now, part one of the Broken Steel DLC:

Rock climbing.

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.