T w e n t y S i d e d
The challenge: Say something nice about a game you don’t like.
Done.
I am really eager to see what Bungie does next. Although given the way the industry is moving these days, bets should be on “make Marathon again”.
PAX!
Link (YouTube) |
Right now our very own Josh and Mumbles are on their way to the Penny Arcade Expo. The plan is for them to take some pictures, write some words, and put them up here where we can enjoy the convention vicariously. On the other hand the expectation is that Josh will spend the entire time in the NCsoft booth, offering to bear children for members of the the Guild Wars 2 dev team.
Either way, their adventure might yield some amusing content for us.
Spoiler Warning 3×5:
The Flame War Plasmid!
In this episode we talk about both Objectivism and religion. I notice there have been a few skirmishes over this stuff in earlier episodes, so let’s get this out in the open. And over with.
Hello, person from the future. This space used to have an embed from the video hosting site Viddler. The video is gone now. If you want to find out why and laugh at Viddler in the process, you can read the entire silly story for yourself. At any rate, the video is gone. Sorry. On the upside, we're gradually re-posting these old videos to YouTube. Check the Spoiler Warning page to see the full index. |
About a year and a half ago we had a thread where an Objectivist weighed in on Objectivism in BioShock. It made for an interesting thread and was surprisingly civil, given the subject matter. I usually discourage or shut down discussions about politics and religion here on the blog because they generate anger without really contributing anything. But we can’t very well discuss a game that supposedly features this philosophy as a central theme and not talk about the philosophy.
And now that I’ve played the game I’ll pose this question: In the game, Andrew Ryan sets up this place with a certain degree of totalitarian thugishness that runs antithetical to Objectivism. Specifically, banning certain types of trade and religion. The idea of regulating thought and trade are about as counter to Ayn Rand’s philosophy as you can get, even if you’re dealing with ideas and trading in things she would have disagreed with.
So… is this showing that Andrew Ryan wasn’t really an Objectivist? Or did the author of BioShock just not understand Objectivism?
Before we get started I’ll repeat my earlier warning:
Please remember that this is a geek blog. We have a nice community here. We get along well enough, and I’d hate to see bitter feuds appear over previously obscured fault lines in the group. Keep it civil and don’t make it personal. Don’t post angry. I’d rather get along and talk about gaming than have a fight which will cause division without changing anyone’s mind.
Happy Aniversary Champions Online
This week you can play Champions Online for free. Old account. New account. Everyone plays for free.
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I signed in. Star on Chest was just where I left him. The robot cowboy amusement park was right where I remember it being. In fact, I couldn’t find a single thing that had changed. No new content. In a year. (That I could spot.) I flipped through the character creator and after ten minutes I only managed to find one new costume piece. This game really needs more content.
Although, if you’ve never played before they will have enough content to keep you busy for a week. Just don’t read the quest text.
They have a celebratory cake in the super’s decadent city center, where you can gather and emote with other players in a crowded mess of spooling chat text and lag. It’s more fun than I make it sound.
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And yes, when you arrive at this location the game makes a “cake is a lie” joke. Sigh. Everyone knows that only the saddest, most desperate sort of hacks are still making cake jokes.
EDIT: Ah. They have added new content, but it’s in the higher level areas, which is why I didn’t see it during my tour.
Mass Effect 2: Mordin Solus Part 2
So, the history of Mass Effect. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up:
The Rachni invaded the galaxy and it was bad. They were winning and nobody could figure out how to make them go away. Then the Salarians discovered the semi-primitive Krogan, handed them space-age weapons, and threw them at the problem.
The Krogan… in Space!
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The Salarians discovered the Krogan and introduced them to the world of interstellar travel and galactic future toys. With space age guns and armor they were more powerful than ever, and their natural aggression made them want to fight the Rachni. All the Salarians had to do was equip them and give them a lift, and they had an almost endless supply of fearless bloodthirsty badasses to throw at the Rachni problem.
This was a very Salarian solution. You can probably see the unintended consequences coming, but the idea had a clever simplicity about it that let the Salarians defend the galaxy without putting their fragile butts in direct combat.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Mass Effect 2: Mordin Solus Part 2”
Spoiler Warning 3×4: Time to get Tanked
Hello, person from the future. This space used to have an embed from the video hosting site Viddler. The video is gone now. If you want to find out why and laugh at Viddler in the process, you can read the entire silly story for yourself. At any rate, the video is gone. Sorry. On the upside, we're gradually re-posting these old videos to YouTube. Check the Spoiler Warning page to see the full index. |
In this episode I brought up the subject of the BioShock DRM. While exotic and new at the time, it’s pretty much the order of the day now for a lot of PC games. Josh mentioned it’s getting better, which is also true. It depends on where you draw the line and what games you care about. Ubisoft has taken the idea to new an absurd heights. Other companies are following the example set by Steam and are trying to sugarcoat their phone-home systems by actually offering some features in return. Blizzard is a great example of this. The new Battle.net requires periodically renewing activation (this is based on hearsay) but offers a ton of new features. Evaluating what you’re really getting for your $60 is becoming increasingly complex.
Still, I’ll always remember BioShock as a forerunner is this regard.
Stolen Pixels #223: The Expensive Dimension
Yes, this comic actually went up a week ago, but since I was afflicted with blindness and making little-girl noises for a week I didn’t get around to linking it until now. Heads up: If you’ve got an old set of red / blue 3D glasses, you might want to hunt them down now. (Although the comic is perfectly intelligible without them and was made with the expectation that most people wouldn’t have them.)
And yes, I am aware of how silly it was to be making stereoscopic images when I was nearly blind in one eye.
I love anaglyph images. I remember in the 90’s I would take screenshots from adventure games like Space Quest and cut the image into its component pieces. Then I’d reconstruct the thing as an anaglyph. A couple of people asked about how these are made. So here is the short version, inasmuch as anything on this site could be counted as “short”:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Stolen Pixels #223: The Expensive Dimension”
From The Archives:
Philosophy of Moderation
The comments on most sites are a sewer of hate, because we're moderating with the wrong goals in mind.
A Star is Born
Remember the superhero MMO from 2009? Neither does anyone else. It was dumb. So dumb I was compelled to write this.
Megatextures
A video discussing Megatexture technology. Why we needed it, what it was supposed to do, and why it maybe didn't totally work.
MMO Population Problems
Computers keep getting more powerful. So why do the population caps for massively multiplayer games stay about the same?
PC Hardware is Toast
This is why shopping for graphics cards is so stupid and miserable.
Trekrospective
A look back at Star Trek, from the Original Series to the Abrams Reboot.
Tenpenny Tower
Bethesda felt the need to jam a morality system into Fallout 3, and they blew it. Good and evil make no sense and the moral compass points sideways.
Self-Balancing Gameplay
There's a wonderful way to balance difficulty in RPGs, and designers try to prevent it. For some reason.
Top 64 Videogames
Lists of 'best games ever' are dumb and annoying. But like a self-loathing hipster I made one anyway.
Why Batman Can't Kill
His problem isn't that he's dumb, the problem is that he bends the world he inhabits.