This week I talked with SoldierHawk about her YouTube Channel, Mass Effect, and the sorry state of sci-fi in videogames.
Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #201: Another Funeral for Mass Effect”
Last Wednesday I did another stream of Grand Theft Auto V. We drove around the city, looked at environment maps, talked about the police AI, discussed the internal building layout of strip clubs, and killed hundreds and hundreds of people.
It turns out this streaming stuff is pretty fun. I’m still working on the technology and such, but I’m getting there. Here is the archive of the stream:
Link (YouTube) |
At around the 27 minute mark I died, and it was unclear how anyone could have shot me. It looked like I was alone in the room. (Aside from the unarmed civilians.) I’d put a proximity mine beside the main entrance, and I was facing towards the back entrance. And yet somehow someone shot me in the back. Nobody watching the stream knew who shot me either. It looked completely random.
But now I’ve watched the replay and I think I’ve solved it. If you watch the map in the lower left you can see I was ambushed by the world’s luckiest policeman. Apparently the proximity mine wasn’t armed yet. I thought the audible “BEEP” signaled that it was armed, but no. I guess it just makes that sound when it attaches to the wall.
If the cop had arrived a split second sooner then I would have seen him and killed him. And if he’d been a second later the mine would have been armed and killed him. Lucky for him, unlucky for me.
Stuff I’m changing for the next stream:
I think we’re going to spend a couple more weeks will GTA V, just because the game is so perfect for streaming. However, feel free to nominate other games. We’re going to move on eventually. Witcher 3 is on my list of games to stream, but I think I should wait until Bob is done with his series. There’s already too much confusion about who is making what content and if we both cover the same game it’ll only get worse.
I’ll be streaming again this Wednesday at 6PM Eastern US time. I don’t know what time that will be where you’re at, because it’s time to pointlessly and stupidly fiddle with the clocks again.
If you can figure out how to convert 6pm my time to wherever you are, then you’ll be able to catch the stream on my Twitch page. I’ll announce the stream on Twitter just before I go live. See you there!
BJ Blakzowicz has to infiltrate the Nazi complex of caves and generic industrial warehouses so he can plant a nuclear device to blow up Area 52. For a game with such far-out scenarios, it’s amazing how mundane the scenery can be.
At various points throughout the game, you get the opportunity to go for a stealthy approach. Sort of. It doesn’t really work, but it’s there. So let’s talk about…
I guess they included the stealth sections as a nod to the stealth based gameplay of the original 2D Wolfenstein games? Or maybe they just included them for variety. Whatever. My problem is that while they included stealth sections, they have never bothered to include any stealth mechanics.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Wolfenstein II Part 6: Imprisoned in a Cutscene”
I’m going to start by listing the initial ground rules of the playthrough.
I may add more rules as we go on, but those are the basics. This is obviously going to make the game more difficult, but based on my experimentation so far I believe it’ll still be doable. I have a relationship with game difficulty that’s kind of the opposite of the usual. Usually it’s the young whippersnappers, with their mongoose-on-adderal reaction times, who like the hard stuff. But for me, I always used to play games on normal (or the equivalent) and it wasn’t until later that I started routinely cranking up the difficulty.
To me a higher difficulty is a way of savoring a game. Of necessity you play it a bit slower, and it also makes you really learn the mechanics. I play fewer games than I used to, so I want to savor the ones that I do play. In the Witcher 3, the highest difficulty (death march) is not really that hard, at least not compared to, say, a Fromsoft game, or even earlier entries in the series. Plus, I always enjoy playing what I call “punchmages.” Hence, the five rules.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “The Witcher 3: White Orchard, Part One”
Lots of people are curious about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency these days. This is particularly true among PC gamers. Not only is cryptocurrency making headlines, it’s also screwing up the graphics card market. Which naturally leads people to asking questions like, “What is this stuff?”
I am not remotely an expert and I’ve never had a reason to use Bitcoin, but I understand a little bit of the underlying technology and I think I can help explain it to people.
Essentially, a bunch of math nerds have invented a new form of money and the world is curious what’s going to happen next. We’ve never had “money” that worked like this before. It’s not tied to a specific paper currency. It’s not guaranteed by a bank. It’s not issued by a government. It’s not backed by precious metals. Instead the currency is governed by a few simple rules and guaranteed by math. This creates a lot of interesting questions regarding economics, trust, law, and existing financial regulations.
But we’re not here to have those debates. We’re here to try and understand what this system is and how it’s possible to have a secure currency with no centralized power. Do note that every level of simplification is bound to bruise the truth a little. What I’m going to give is a very rudimentary overview and many, many details have been left out. This will not make you an expert, but I hope I can at least help you understand a couple of basic questions like:
Cryptocurrency is built using two key technologies: asymmetrical cryptography, and hash functions. Those terms might sound complex and scary, but anyone can grasp them. So before we explain cryptocurrency and the blockchain, let’s explain these two technologies.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Cryptocurrency and the Blockchain: What is This Stuff?”
We did it. We made 200 of these stupid things. If you listened to the show for 40 hours a week, it would take you 5 weeks to hear the whole thing. And that’s ignoring the fact that most episodes are a little over an hour. (And some episodes aren’t included in the numbered list.)
Episode edited by Issac.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #200: Mailbag!”
Last Wednesday I did an hour long stream of Grand Theft Auto V. We drove around the city, fussed over environment detail, talked about the walk cycles of pedestrians, discussed the tricks used to make storefront facades look believable, looked at environment maps, analyzed different sidewalk textures, got excited about the dynamic day / night transitions, and killed hundreds and hundreds of people.
I’ve uploaded the video to YouTube for those of you who missed the stream.
Link (YouTube) |
This was actually really fun. I was always worried that streaming would be stressful, but this was pretty chill. I guess it helped that only 40 people showed up, so I didn’t have the anxiety of learning to stream in front of a huge crowd. It felt more like hanging out with a small group of friends and talking about games. (There were 40+ people, but only a handful participated in chat, so still felt like a small group.)
I’m not going to commit to making this a regular thing, but I do plan to try it again this week. Wednesday night at 6pm eastern time / 11pm GMT.
Stuff I’m working on:
I’ll probably keep doing this until I get bored of it. See you there.
It's not a good movie, but it was made with good intentions and if you look closely you can find a few interesting ideas.
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2015.
Most stories have plot holes. The failure isn't that they exist, it's when you notice them while immersed in the story.
How does image compression work, and why does it create those ugly spots all over some videos and not others?
What does it mean when a program crashes, and why does it happen?
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.
Since we're rebooting everything, MASH will probably come up eventually. Here are some casting suggestions.
Yes, this game is loud, crude, childish, and stupid. But it it knows what it wants to be and nails it. And that's admirable.
Just how big IS No Man's Sky? What if you made a map of all of its landmass? How big would it be?
Let's count up the ways in which Bethesda has misunderstood and misused the Fallout property.
T w e n t y S i d e d
