Hosts: Josh, Rutskarn, Shamus, Campster. Episode edited by Issac.
Diecast #200 is right around the corner. I’m open to suggestions as to how we should observe the landmark.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #196: MST3K, Stories Untold, Game Jam”
The spam bots never rest. They’re not always funny, but sometimes this army of automated chimpanzees manages to bang out something giggle-worthy on their internet typewriters. Let’s see what they came up with this week…
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Messages from Spammers Pt 5”
Later today we’ll be streaming PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS. Why? Only Josh knows. We’ll be streaming on Twitch when the time comes. I hope you can make it and explain to me what this game is and why Josh wants me to watch it.
Edit: Thanks everyone for tuning in. We streamed almost two hours each of PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS and Nier Automata. The VODs will go up on youtube at some point, but until then, you can find them in the Twitch Archives.
There are a lot of sidequests in Arkham City. The odd thing is that there doesn’t seem to be a good time to do them. If you try to do them right away then Batman will be missing a few required gadgets because the story hasn’t granted them yet. But if you wait too long, then Batman gets poisoned and it feels silly to ignore that in favor of screwing around punching out a bunch of nutjobs who are already in jail.
But like I keep saying: This game was designed gameplay first. It’s more important to have a variety of side-activities available for the player to explore rather than support the illusion of urgency they’re trying to sell in the main plot.
This point in the game is where I usually abandon the main story and start messing around with the side missions. The section where you hunt down Ra’s Al Ghul is long, linear, heavy on cutscenes, and once you enter you’re locked in until you finish up.
So let’s talk about these diverting villains you need to track down…
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Arkham City Part 12: Arkham Sidequest”
Now that the last flatulent black-powder pop has dispersed in the wild Caribbean(!) breeze, it’s time to consolidate my ill-gotten profits. First there’s the grim but unfortunately necessary matter of triage–the Delight had a larger hold than my own vessel, so naturally I can’t take everything. I do the painful arithmetic and allocate the Boiled Sweet‘s storage space as efficiently as I can before throwing the leftovers overboard.
Having taken care of that, I give the Delight a crew and add it to my fleet.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Nan o’ War CH7: Flotsam and Regretsam”
Hosts: Josh, Shamus, and Campster. Edited by Baychel.
Sorry this one is late. We had to record on Sunday due to the intrusion of Real Life.
Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #195: Scorpio, Unravel, Remakes”
Link (YouTube) |
Has the meaning of “poser” migrated? My memory of it was that it meant “faker” or “impostor”. But here Max walks up to the skater guy and strikes up a conversation. She makes no effort to pretend she knows anything about skateboarding, but he calls her a poser anyway. (Technically she’s a poser AFTER she rewinds time and uses some fresh lingo to bluff her way through the conversation.) He seems to be using the word to mean “lame”. I dunno. It’s been a quarter century since I heard “poser” used as a derogatory term, and I can imagine usage has changed.
Also, I brought up the game Bully in this episode. Eleven years ago, Rockstar took a break from making open world games about car theft and murder to make this small, focused little game about one boy at a private school. I remember really enjoying it. I liked the non-lethal combat that ended fights by stuffing foes in lockers or garbage cans. I liked how each student character model had a specific name and identity, as opposed to filling out the school grounds with generic nameless clones. I loved the school itself. It wasn’t perfect or anything, but I’m sad the game seems to have been forgotten. It felt like a solid prototype for a much better game. Too bad Rockstar doesn’t seem inclined to revisit the idea.
Ever wonder how seemingly sane people can hate popular games? It can happen!
An interesting but technically dense talk about gaming technology. I translate it for the non-coders.
Some advice to game developers on how to stop ruining good stories with bad cutscenes.
A screencap comic that poked fun at videogames and the industry. The comic has ended, but there's plenty of archives for you to binge on.
A novel-sized analysis of the Mass Effect series that explains where it all went wrong. Spoiler: It was long before the ending.
What is this Vulkan stuff? A graphics engine? A game engine? A new flavor of breakfast cereal? And how is it supposed to make PC games better?
For one of the most popular casual games in existence, Match 3 is actually really broken. Until one developer fixed it.
A music lesson for people who know nothing about music, from someone who barely knows anything about music.
Scenes from Half-Life 2:Episode 2, showing Gordon Freeman being a jerk.
This version of Silver Sable is poorly designed, horribly written, and placed in the game for all the wrong reasons.
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