Here is another comic from 2010. A lot of my old comics are dated and not worth revisiting, but a few are probably good enough to rescue. Let me know if there are any in particular that you remember and would like to see again.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Stolen Pixels #226: Chime Chime Chime”
Once again, I was sure the show was running long. And yet again, the resulting podcast is just under an hour. I guess I underestimate just how much ends up on the cutting room floor. Between segments Paul and I frequently stop and talk about what topic we want to jump to next. Or we pause while one of us looks up something on Google.
In my mind, these take only a few seconds. But apparently we spend five to ten minutes on this sort of stuff. Weird.
Link (YouTube) |
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #378: Email Madness”
Back in Giruvegan, the party is back in the room where they fought Shemhazai; the gate to the floating platform is forever closed now. Too bad, since we, you know, STILL DON’T KNOW HOW TO USE NETHICITE. I’m serious, even if we’re content with just using it as a blunt-force nuke crystal, how do we even do that? Do we throw it like a grenade? I can see some issues with that regarding the blast radius. Are there magic words? A dance, perhaps? At this point our only method of deploying nethicite as a weapon is to load it into one of our own airships’ engine drives and fly it into the enemy’s lines as a kamikaze superbomb. I mean, that’s not bad, but it only works once, and if we can use it as more of a deathray I think that would be a bit more efficient. I’m not hard to please.Well, I mean… Oh, fine.
Another thing the Occuria neglected to mention is where to find the Sun-Cryst. I’m sure it slipped their minds. The party looks to Fran, to see if Gerun’s flowery description stirred anything in the ol’ travelogue,Why did I not spell this here as I spell it in title of the thing? There’s a very good reason: I’m still a hack. but she comes up empty. It’s fine, I’m sure Fran’s really good at plenty of other stuff we never see.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “A Travelog of Ivalice, Part 13: Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”
This comic appeared on the Escapist way back in November 2010. Unlike most of my old comics, this one is still sort of visible. The navigation is broken, the comments are gone, there are missing images, and the formatting is a mess, but at least the comic is still visible. Which is good, since I think this is the most popular entry in the entire strip.
The original text was as follows:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Stolen Pixels #241: Gaming Afterlife”
I forgot to mention it on the show, but I got a community award from Steam this week. I didn’t even know that community awards were a thing? The award also came with a prize! I received 100 Steam points, which were added to my 177,085 total. I’m rich! Or something. More details below.
Link (YouTube) |
Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #377: Xbox Desolation”
This is the last entry in my series. But before I go, let me inflict one last gripe on you. After this, you’ll be glad to be rid of me.
Over the years I’ve built up something of a reputation as a fussy nitpicker who hates everything and complains all the time. Sometimes I think that’s a bit unfair. I love games! I enjoy them all the time. It’s just that criticism is more spacious than praise. It takes one paragraph to describe why I like something and ten paragraphs to detail why I don’t. This results in a lot of articles that – going strictly by word count – are mostly negative.
But today I’m going to really earn my reputation as an impossible-to-please critic. A complainer. A gripe merchant. An angry rain cloud in search of a parade. Because I’m going to dump on the one thing in this mess of a game that everyone agrees is aces.
Everybody loves the music. No matter how much people might bitch and moan about the characters, the plot, the themes, the gameplay, the license board, the costumes, or any of the other problem areas in this game, they always stop at the end to admit that despite all of these other problems, the music is really good.
Everyone except me. I’m just not feeling it.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “FF12 Sightseeing Tour Part 12: Face the Music”
There are indeed a few of Reddas’ shortbus pirates with the lowdown on the Feywood awaiting Vaan outside. Well, that does them a bit too much credit; they tell us it’s south of Golmore and is rich in mist, which I already knew from the previous conversation and, in fact, from having already been there to farm monster parts. They do mention some sort of trial, the passing of which is necessary to reach Giruvegan beyond, and indeed there was a path I couldn’t traverse before.
A quick stroll on out to the Feywood later, and that path, previously blocked by a thick current of rushing mist,mist can do anything, shut up clears up at Ashe’s approach as the mist dissipates with a final howl. On cue, Rasler appears and wanders deeper into the snowy wood, beckoning her further.
He could have at least warned us about the boss fight in the next area, the spooky Nabradian git. Thanks to the multitude of status effects at its disposal it managed to annoy me a bit despite my overpoweredness. So! That must have been the trial of the Feywood, which means Giruvegan lies just ahead.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “A Travelog of Ivalice, Part XII: A Saucerful of Secrets”
Which would you rather be: A king in the middle ages, or a lower-income laborer in the 21st century?
The plot of this game isn't just dumb, it's actively hostile to the player. This game hates you and thinks you are stupid.
Who is this imbecile and why is he wandering around Europe unsupervised?
A videogame that judges its audience, criticizes its genre, and hates its premise. How did this thing get made?
Sometimes software is engineered. Sometimes it grows organically. And sometimes it's thrown together seemingly at random over two decades.
Be careful what you learn with your muscle-memory, because it will be very hard to un-learn it.
A wild game filled with wild ideas that features fun puzzles and mind-blowing environments. It has a great atmosphere, and one REALLY annoying flaw with its gameplay.
A long-form analysis on one of the greatest horror games ever made.
Here is a long look at a game that tries to live up to a big legacy and fails hilariously.
Even allegedly smart people can make life-changing blunders that seem very, very obvious in retrospect.
T w e n t y S i d e d
