NEWER POSTS

The Long Dark Spoiler Warning Christmas

By Shamus Posted Friday Dec 25, 2015

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 115 comments
Hangout Steamtroller: Mirror's EdgePrevious Post
Next PostKnights of the Old Republic EP37: The Shocking Conclusion of KOTOR

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you’re enjoying the holiday. The Spoiler Warning cast got together on Christmas Eve-Eve, because we wanted to help you celebrate.

Traditionally, Christmas is a time we associate with:

  1. Being with family and friends
  2. Good food.
  3. Bright cheerful decorations.
  4. Gathering around a fire.
  5. Exchanging gifts.

So we figure the best way to celebrate this time with friends and and family is to ignore them and instead watch this video about a game where…

  1. You are totally alone, without the hint or hope of meeting another human soul. Your only company is a vast wilderness full of wild beasts, who are trying to eat you.
  2. You are hungry. You can’t even imagine how hungry. Like, if you’re really lucky your Christmas dinner might be a jug of ice cold toilet water.
  3. It is dark. So dark you can’t even see how utterly alone you are.
  4. You are cold. So cold you can’t even feel your exhausted dead limbs as you tumble into a sleeping bag on the hard floor and hope you can get just an hour or two of sleep without freezing to death.
  5. You are plunged into the most desperate poverty, and your only “Christmas gifts” will be the meager trinkets you can scavenge from the silent corpses you encounter in your wanderings.

So from all of us, to all of you, enjoy The Long Dark, you doomed, isolated wastrel:

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “The Long Dark Spoiler Warning Christmas”

 

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.

Hangout Steamtroller: Mirror's EdgePrevious Post
Next PostKnights of the Old Republic EP37: The Shocking Conclusion of KOTOR

115 comments

 

Mass Effect Retrospective 28: Actually, Go Ahead and Fear the Reaper

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Dec 22, 2015

Filed under: Mass Effect 231 comments
Mass Effect Retrospective 27: Everyone Has Read the ScriptPrevious Post
Next PostMass Effect Retrospective 29: Field Trip

Shepard has the Normandy sidle up to the “disabled” Collector vessel and his team takes the shuttle over. They’re here for “intel” on the “Omega 4 Relay”, but it’s kind of vague because that’s a really broad topic and we don’t know what they’re looking for specifically. We don’t know what part of the ship they’re in, or heading for. We don’t know how far we have to go, and it’s not even made clear why we need to board their vessel in the first place, since EDI seems to read their databanks from the Normandy. I guess the Collectors have a really shitty Wi-fi password? The author doesn’t seem interested in explaining how that works or what the limitations are, or what.

That’s usually fine in a drama-based story, although this is kind of muddled because the team seems to forget why they’re here. It would be nice if there was just one or two lines of dialog that framed their goals for this scene and explained how they planned to achieve themLike: We need to take this wireless adapter to the Collector router on deck 2.. Shepard and friends just walk down a single linear corridor and act like tourists in a Collector-based theme park.

It’s actually important to keep the audience focused in a situation like this. We want the player to have some kind of perceptible goal. Since this is supposed to be an ambush, we want them to be thinking about the thing they’re supposedly about to get. Otherwise they go into passive mode and simply wait for the other shoe to drop.

And then we come across a weapon on the ground and we get a popup asking what weapon class we want to permanently unlock for Shepard. Just.. what? Here? In the middle of a mission? Shepard suddenly unlocks a new weapon? Shouldn’t this happen on one of the many upgrade menus in the Normandy? Why is this choice here?

It’s like the writer forgot they were supposed to be building tension for the upcoming ambush and so they left out some exposition and instead gave us some immersion-breaking decisions to make about our character build.

None of this is horrible (yet) but it does feel distracted and desultory.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Mass Effect Retrospective 28: Actually, Go Ahead and Fear the Reaper”

 

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.

Mass Effect Retrospective 27: Everyone Has Read the ScriptPrevious Post
Next PostMass Effect Retrospective 29: Field Trip

231 comments

 

Experienced Points: How Witcher 3 Breaks all the Rules

By Shamus Posted Monday Dec 21, 2015

Filed under: Column 62 comments
Experienced Points: Sequels and the Death of NoveltyPrevious Post
Next PostExperienced Points: Yes, Minecraft is Still a Thing

My column this week is a gimmick-y little thing illustrating just how ridiculously lavish the storytelling is in Witcher 3. It was originally part of my 2015 end-of-year list, but the idea kind of grew into its own thing. And speaking of my 2015 list:

I left out Kerbal Space Program. Then again, it was actually part of my 2013 list. Honestly, these end-of-year lists are getting to be really confusing. Games come out before they’re released, we play them before they’re done, and we finish them before they’re finished. It’s a madcap, topsy-turvy world we live in now and nobody knows what the rules are.

Also, if I’d thought of it I might have put Hexcells: Infinite on my list. I played quite a bit of that this year. Er, all of it, actually. It’s like Minesweeper, but about ten times deeper, and played on a hex grid.

Witcher 3 was the game I wanted to come back to all year. It’s stuck with me, and I keep thinking about how I’d like to handle situation A or B differently. Spoiler: The biggest one is that: In my play-through I left the Radovid problem alone. This is not a good idea and the people of the city had a Bad Time.

Also, I sort of defaulted to pairing up with Yennifer, because it felt that that was the most “canonical” way to play it. I acted like I was playing KOTOR: the game makes the most sense on both a story and thematic level if you go light-side, but they allow you to play dark side anyway. But later it became clear there was no “canonical” route through Witcher 3. All roads were equally valid. If I do another play through, I might pair up with TrisI loved the hedge maze scene. It’s not remarkable by movie standards, but it’s amazing by the standards of videogame romance. It’s probably the first time romantic tension in a videogame didn’t feel like flirting with a Protectron. or I might go for the loner ending.

Now if I can just scrape together enough hours to manage another trip through the game.

 

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.

Experienced Points: Sequels and the Death of NoveltyPrevious Post
Next PostExperienced Points: Yes, Minecraft is Still a Thing

62 comments

 

Diecast #133: Disney, Mailbag

By Shamus Posted Monday Dec 21, 2015

Filed under: Diecast 83 comments
Diecast #132: 2015 RetrospectivePrevious Post
Next PostDiecast #134: Steampocalypse, 2015 Wrap-up, Star Wars



Hosts: Josh, Shamus, Campster, Mumbles. Episode edited by Rachel.

No Star Wars talk this week. It’s a little too soon. But I suspect next week will be the big spoiler discussion. Be ready!

Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #133: Disney, Mailbag”

 

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.

Diecast #132: 2015 RetrospectivePrevious Post
Next PostDiecast #134: Steampocalypse, 2015 Wrap-up, Star Wars

83 comments

 

The Altered Scrolls, Part 15: Thoreau’s Razor

By Rutskarn Posted Saturday Dec 19, 2015

Filed under: Elder Scrolls 104 comments
The Altered Scrolls, Part 14: The Last EraPrevious Post
Next PostThe Altered Scrolls, Part 16: Goals and Failures

So what’s the big difference between Skyrim and Oblivion? What draws the line of burning gasoline between what the series used to be and what it’s probably going to be forever?

Simply, they simplified. They made the game more straightforward and turned everything upside-down in the process.

Processes of simplification have occurred before in this franchise, but never quite under these circumstances. The first big features cull took place between Daggerfall and Morrowind when the latter title dropped half the former’s skills and subsystems, but this was a move born from the strictest pragmatism; most of the stuff dropped just plain didn’t work. Morrowind‘s developers were soberly aware of what they could actually make interesting and worthwhile and while they clearly wanted to preserve the same basic feeling Daggerfall contained, and wanted as much complexity in the game as possible, they were no longer willing to just throw something in there just for the hell of it, just in case somebody liked it. Which had been the prevailing design philosophy since the original epic of feature creep that spawned the series, but never mind. It was time to exercise discipline and restraint.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “The Altered Scrolls, Part 15: Thoreau’s Razor”

 

Rutskarn is a writer, author, wordsmith, text producer, article deviser, prose architect, and accredited language-talker. If you enjoy his contributions to this site you could always back his Patreon.

The Altered Scrolls, Part 14: The Last EraPrevious Post
Next PostThe Altered Scrolls, Part 16: Goals and Failures

104 comments

 

Dénouement 2015 Part 4: The End

By Shamus Posted Thursday Dec 17, 2015

Filed under: Industry Events 91 comments
Dénouement 2015 Part 3: The WinnersPrevious Post
Next PostE3 2016 Day -1: EA Press Conference

And now for my top 3. Disappointingly, everyone guessed these in yesterday’s post. I think they even got the ordering right. But maybe it’s for the best. The downside of having surprises in your list is that it means people expected something else. Which leads to arguments. Which leads to anger. Which leads to the Dark Side. Or something like that.

Anyway. Here they are:

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Dénouement 2015 Part 4: The End”

 

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.

Dénouement 2015 Part 3: The WinnersPrevious Post
Next PostE3 2016 Day -1: EA Press Conference

91 comments

 

Mass Effect Retrospective 27: Everyone Has Read the Script

By Shamus Posted Thursday Dec 17, 2015

Filed under: Mass Effect 165 comments
Mass Effect Retrospective 26: THIS HURTS YOUPrevious Post
Next PostMass Effect Retrospective 28: Actually, Go Ahead and Fear the Reaper

The finale of Horizon has Shepard’s team repairing the colony’s anti-air guns while under assault from the Collectors. The guns were a gift from the Alliance, but they weren’t working. Once EDI completes a calibration / hotfix, they give the Collector ship a pounding until the Collectors retreat.

After each main story mission, we head back to holograph land to talk to The Illusive Man. These conversations have a lot in common with the Kashley conversation earlier: The other person talks nonsense, your dialog choices aren’t fair, and when you choose one Shepard says something different anyway.

A Talk with TIM

PLEASE tell me you put a mind-control chip in my brain. I can't bear the thought that I might actually be stupid enough to work for you.
PLEASE tell me you put a mind-control chip in my brain. I can't bear the thought that I might actually be stupid enough to work for you.

Last week I said the Kashley conversation was a disaster and you could find problems with almost every line of dialog. The same is true here. So let’s do that. Here is an except of the post-mission debrief with The Illusive Man: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Mass Effect Retrospective 27: Everyone Has Read the Script”

 

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.

Mass Effect Retrospective 26: THIS HURTS YOUPrevious Post
Next PostMass Effect Retrospective 28: Actually, Go Ahead and Fear the Reaper

165 comments

 
OLDER POSTS
From The Archives:

What is Vulkan?

There's a new graphics API in town. What does that mean, and why do we need it?

 

Stolen Pixels

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.

 

Gamers Aren’t Toxic

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.

 

Overthinking Zombies

Let's ruin everyone's fun by listing all the ways in which zombies can't work, couldn't happen, and don't make sense.

 

Final Fantasy X

A game about the ghost of an underwater football player who travels through time to save the world from a tick that controls kaiju satan. Really.

 

The Biggest Game Ever

Just how big IS No Man's Sky? What if you made a map of all of its landmass? How big would it be?

 

My Music

Do you like electronic music? Do you like free stuff? Are you okay with amateur music from someone who's learning? Yes? Because that's what this is.

 

Programming Vexations

Here is a 13 part series where I talk about programming games, programming languages, and programming problems.

 

Steam Summer Blues

This mess of dross, confusion, and terrible UI design is the storefront the big publishers couldn't beat? Amazing.

 

The Gameplay is the Story

Some advice to game developers on how to stop ruining good stories with bad cutscenes.