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Hosts: Josh, Chris, and Shamus.
Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #53: FTL, Civilization Beyond Earth, Actual Sunlight”
Diecast #53: FTL, Civilization Beyond Earth, Actual Sunlight
Skyrim EP24: Hover Horse
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I was pretty mad at Josh for everything he did this week and every way he failed to progress in the game. But then he found the glitch with the horse so I figure we’re even.
I had a lot to say about this stuff, but I might as well save it for the next time I’m on the show. It’s going to be a long season and I don’t want to run out of things to complain about analyze.
Skyrim EP23: Praefect Strangers
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Welcome to Riften, where everyone is a dick to you for no reason, everyone insists on talking to you for no reason, and everyone is invincible for no reason. (No good reason, anyway.) It’s also ugly. It’s also the home of the Thieves Guild Questline, making this the most awesome concentration of awfulness in all of Skyrim.
Skyrim EP22: Hey Look, A Moose
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“No, seriously guys. If I can’t make it, just do Spoiler Warning without me. We’ve got plenty of people. I don’t need to be in every single episode,” is clearly the most wrong thing I’ve ever said.
So enjoy this twenty-five minutes of listening to the lengthy exposition for a quest and then forgetting all about it, waiting for the arrival of an NPC who will never show up because they haven’t read the letter to begin the quest, going shopping and yet still not buying any health potions, stealing yet another horse despite how this has proven to be a pointless hassle in the past, dying in a pointless fight against random bandits that could have been avoided by simply staying on the horse instead of letting it wander off yet again, and finally bunny-hopping around the wilderness aimlessly murdering trash mobs with no clear goal in mind.
This is what I do on the show. I restrain this lawlessness and tomfoolery. I am the Nick Fury of this team. Except with no eyepatch. Or Trenchcoat. Or training. Or weapons. Or budget. And nobody listens to me.
Thief Autopsy Part 5: Change of Plans
“Shamus, you’re just looking for things to complain about. You nitpick every little thing.”
I get that at least once during every one of my long-form write-ups / deconstructions. It’s that time again where I have to explain why we do this. So let’s get that out of the way:
This is not a review. I’m not ticking off points to justify my love it / hate it / 5 out of 10 stars conclusion at the end. This isn’t supposed to be comedy.
We’re beginning with the premise that the story here doesn’t work. If it worked for you, then fine. But that means that none of this applies to you. Understand that I’m not trying to make you dislike the story. I’m explaining why I didn’t like it. And I can’t boil it down to a single plot element. This story died the death of a thousand paper cuts, worn down by a constant barrage of cutscenes and dialog that failed to form a cohesive whole.
I imagine most of us have gone through a story and left with the impression that it was “off”. It didn’t resonate. It didn’t work. We never felt emotionally connected. Maybe bits of the story bother you later and you can’t figure out why. For me, it’s cathartic to dig down and figure out where the story broke. Where did I lose trust in the writers and begin tolerating the story instead of taking part in it?
Also, it’s worth noting that the writers spent incredible piles of money on these cutscenes. They devoured resources that might have been spent on other parts of the game. Maybe the levels could have been larger and more interesting if so much time hadn’t been spent shuffling them around as the story changed. Maybe we could have kept fan-favorite Stephen Russel. Maybe there would have been time to iron out the unforgivable mess of an audio system. Maybe the gameplay could have been more polished. Whatever. There’s a lot wrong with this game, and a fortune was spent making a movie the fans didn’t expect, didn’t like, and which didn’t even make sense. I’m not nitpicking “every little thing”. I’m nitpicking one massive thing. If the writers didn’t want us over-thinking the plot, they shouldn’t have spent so much time and money shoving it in our face.
With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s get back into this game…
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Thief Autopsy Part 5: Change of Plans”
Experienced Points: Why the Oculus Rift is a Big Deal
I should note that a great deal of the information from today’s column about the Oculus Rift came from the Dev Days presentation “What VR Could, Should, and Almost Certainly Will Be within Two Years” by Micheal Abrash. That was a talk given by Abrash back in January, before he left Valve to join the Oculus team. I highly recommend watching it if you’re interested in VR.
I’m really excited about VR. I’ve actually downloaded the Oculus SDK and read the docs. Both look pretty solid. I can see Carmack’s hand in it. The API has a tight and intuitive interface that makes it easy to set up a scene and track the camera. If you’re going to develop for VR, using the SDK won’t be a challenge. (Rendering twice as many frames at 60fps without dropping frames? THAT’S the stuff that’s going to keep you up late at night.)
I can’t test it (I don’t have a Rift myself) but it makes for an interesting read. What’s clear is that VR-based games are going to have a huge number of new human interface concerns to worry about. Extensive reading and a complex HUD is bad. Lots of abrupt, rapid motion is bad. Full screen distortions are bad. Grabbing the camera to show the player something is REALLY bad. VR is not something we can just hack into an existing game. To really take advantage of VR we need to build a game around it.
Diecast #52: Goat Simulator, Burial at Sea
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Hosts: Josh, Chris, Jarenth, and Shamus.
Show notes:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #52: Goat Simulator, Burial at Sea”
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