Here are the rest of my thoughts on the Ubisoft show. As before, the whole 1 hour, 50 minute ordeal is in this video at the top, and my text synopsis is below.
Link (YouTube) |
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “E3 2018 Day 3: Ubisoft Press Event Part 2”
This is it. The last of the E3 streams for me. This one ran long in terms of commentary, so I’m going to make it a two-parter. As before, I streamed this show along with Ross, who worked on Good Robot with me. He works at Ubisoft now, and was streaming this event from inside the Ubi offices.
We start off the pre-show with some talk about Uplay and the Ubi offices that I can’t easily summarize here. As before, I’ve got a brief text-based reaction below the video:
Link (YouTube) |
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “E3 2018 Day 3: Ubisoft Press Event Part 1”
I went into this presentation with a massive chip on my shoulder. I’m always sharply critical of Bethesda on a creative level, particularly when it comes to things like narrative, dialog, playtesting, QA testing, interface design, art style, pacing, combat mechanics, PC support, sound design, presentation, user choice, character design, system requirements, physics, scripting, animation, game feel, respect for legacy source material, enemy design, lighting, and Todd Howard’s annoying half-smirk. I was ready to hate on these guys for an hour and a half.
But when it comes right down to it, I think they won me over. I liked several of the offerings. I was genuinely excited about others. I even enjoyed some of the presentations for games I don’t care about. And in the end, I wound up laughing at Todd Howard’s jokes instead of laughing at Todd Howard directly. It was a good show, with solid titles, well presented, with just enough levity and self-awareness to disarm me.
If you watch the video, take note of how many times this happens:
Me, shouting at Tood Howard, “So are you guys going to finally get around to fixing [longstanding annoyance]?!?”
(5 seconds later)
Todd Howard says to the audience, “And yes, [longstanding annoyance] is no longer an issue.”
Me: “Huh.”
The text summary is below the video:
Link (YouTube) |
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “E3 2018 Day 2: Bethesda Press Event”
More connection problems plagued this event for me, so the show was fragmented into several streams with annoying continuity gaps between them. Rather than posting the raw mess, I’ve trimmed it down to the coherent bits and omitted the stuff I don’t care about.
As before, the text version is below for the non-video folks.
Link (YouTube) |
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “E3 2018 Day 2: Microsoft Press Event”
I’m very busy with E3 this week and didn’t have time to come up with good topics. So we emptied out the mailbag.
Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #214: Mailbag Clearinghouse”
Streaming is always a complicated process. You’ve usually got about six different bits of technology all strung together. My usual setup is Open Broadcaster + a webpage for chat + my webcam feed + ManyCam Studio + a AAA videogame. Add in the challenge of balancing multiple audio sources, keeping FPS reasonable, all the technology on Twitch’s end, and the capricious nature of Windows, and it’s a miracle I can do it at all.
All of this is to say I didn’t get it just right this time. The audio gets a bit wonky in spots and there’s that mishap in the middle. Whoops. I’m sure I’ll get the hang of this just about the time E3 winds down.
Below are my thoughts in text form, for you non-video types.
Link (YouTube) |
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “E3 2018 Day 1: EA Press Event”
It’s been a while since I last streamed, hasn’t it? In case you missed it, here is the stream I did of Destiny 2 on Wednesday, minus the first two minutes where my mic was muted:
Link (YouTube) |
I really don’t like the special ability of the Warlock. Also, everything cool about him vanished as soon as the tutorial ended. Cool outfit? gone. Cool face? Obscured by boring helmet. Cool shotgun? Replaced with a much more powerful but bland SMG of some sort. Technically all characters go through this aesthetic downgrade once you start the game, but it was really pronounced for my Warlock. If we do another stream, I’ll probably use a different character.
One of the highest-rated games of all time has some of the least interesting gameplay.
People fault EA for being greedy, but their real sin is just how terrible they are at it.
Even allegedly smart people can make life-changing blunders that seem very, very obvious in retrospect.
Which would you rather be: A king in the middle ages, or a lower-income laborer in the 21st century?
Why are RPG economies so bad? Why are shopkeepers so mercenary, why are the prices so crazy, and why do you always end up a gazillionaire by the end of the game? Can't we just have a sensible balanced economy?
This is a horrible narrative that undermines the hobby through crass stereotypes. The hobby is vast, gamers come from all walks of life, and you shouldn't judge ANY group by its worst members.
Bethesda felt the need to jam a morality system into Fallout 3, and they blew it. Good and evil make no sense and the moral compass points sideways.
An ongoing series where I work on making a 2D action game from scratch.
Most stories have plot holes. The failure isn't that they exist, it's when you notice them while immersed in the story.
Sometimes in-game secrets are fun and sometimes they're lame. Here's why.
T w e n t y S i d e d
