At the top of the show we joked that this is the “second or third” time Paul has been on the show. I just looked it up, and we’ve done 130+ episodes together. Time flies.
Link (YouTube) |
Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #330: Big Tech Rants, Mailbag”
The year is 1982 and I’m stuck in the middle of a long, long school day. I’m 11 years old. I’m in a Special Ed classroom, waiting to go back to my regular classroom. I have ten minutes to go.
I start staring at the large clock over the door, pretending I can make it move faster. I focus on it, staring at the center of the clock until the edges of my vision go blurry. Move. Move faster! Get me out of here!
It’s a pointless gesture, of course. Aside from the fact that I can’t control time, it’s not like there’s anything better waiting for me in the other classroom. I’m going to watch the clock here, then watch the clock there, then watch the clock in the lunchroom, then back in this room again, and so on. The end of the day is too far off to get excited about, so I just have to look forward to the next interval of structured tedium.
I keep staring. Move. Move faster!
Suddenly the minute hand begins visibly moving. I blink, thinking that all of my staring has created a weird optical illusion. Clocks can play funny tricks on your eyes – particularly when you’re staring at them – and I figure I’ve stumbled into some sort of perceptual weirdness. I rub my eyes, look back, and the minute hand is still gliding along like a second hand. It passes the top of the hour. According to the clock, it’s past time to leave. I look around nervously. Nobody else is leaving. The rest of the world seems to be moving normally.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Time Keeps on Slippin’”
This is the player’s third matchup against Second Sister, but Cal’s fourth. The first one was cutscene-only, so the player didn’t participate. Then a few minutes after that, we got our tutorial duel where Cal escaped with the help of Cere. Then at the end of Zeffo part 2 we got a rematch that was cut short by a forcefield. And now here we are near the end of the game. Both sides have been indirectly fighting for the holocron, but now the two sides are going to fight over it directly.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Jedi Fallen Order Part 20: Careful With That Thing”
My normal response to anxiety is to immerse myself into a video game. And if there isn’t anything available, I can fall back to watching movies. But that didn’t work this year, because the entertainment industry basically stopped releasing new stuff. So while “Hardly any big-budget games and movies came out this year” isn’t a 2020 story per se and is certainly the most petty of first-world problems, it’s still something I found really personally annoying.
A year ago I ended 2019 by looking forward to some 2020 games and talking about what I hoped / wanted / expected. Let’s look back at what I had to say and compare my expectations with reality…
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Dénouement 2020: Expectations vs. Reality”
The good news is that I’ve survived another week. The bad news is that the weeks aren’t really improving in terms of quality. Oh well. At least it gives us something to complain about.
Link (YouTube) |
Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #329: Survivor Mailbag”
We arrive back on Bogano, which is where our MacGuffin is waiting for us. Essentially Master Cordova hid this supremely important and sensitive bit of intelligence on this secret planet that only Jedi know about, and then he created a planet-hopping scavenger hunt that would require us to brave treacherous territory and attract Imperial attention to get the Astrum to open the vault. Anyone could have showed up and grabbed the Astrum at any time. The Empire could have taken it just because they hoard relics. Malicos could have taken it just because it was a cool Jedi thing sitting in the creepy tomb where he ruled over the hapless locals. The locals could have taken it because it’s theirs and maybe they’re attached to it.
This is like putting all your valuables in a bank vault, but then storing the key for the vault in the middle of a warzone, inside of a despotic nation, in territory controlled by a ruthless drug cartel. Those layers of danger aren’t protecting your key, they’re endangering it further.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Jedi Fallen Order Part 19: Pay For Your Lack of Vision”
2020 was the worst decade of my life. Yes, there was all of the big stuff everyone complained about: Global pandemic, the various lockdowns and subsequent economic fallout, the California wildfires, mass protests, the Australian wildfires, a rancorous American electionTo be honest, this one was like 7 different news stories in a long chain., the Amazon firesBut not this kind of Amazon Fire., a bunch of war, the Canadian wildfires, a stock market crash, mass unemployment, the invasion of murder hornetsThis one was more buzz than sting. It’s like the “Shark attack” stories from a few years ago, when shark attacks were down but shark attack coverage was up., and the fact that among all these crazy stories, the only one I made up was the one about Canadian wildfires.
I’m really happy we’ve got 2020 in the rear view mirror now. On the other hand, disasters don’t follow the Gregorian calendar, so there’s no real assurance that 2021 is going to be any better.
But let’s take all of these global concerns and shove them off to one side. We’re not here to talk about the troubles with the human race and planet earth. This is obviously a tabletop roleplaying website, which means we’re here to talk about the AAA video game industry.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Dénouement 2020: This Could Have Gone Better”
Did you anticipate the big plot twist of Batman: Arkham City? Here's all the ways the game hid that secret from you while also rubbing your nose in it.
Why Google sucks, and what made me switch to crowdfunding for this site.
Ever wonder how seemingly sane people can hate popular games? It can happen!
What does it mean when a program crashes, and why does it happen?
The game was a dud, and I'm convinced a big part of that is due to the way the game leaned into its story. Its terrible, cringe-inducing story.
As someone who loves Tolkein lore and despises silly MMO quests, this game left me deeply conflicted.
An ongoing series where I work on making a 2D action game from scratch.
This is why shopping for graphics cards is so stupid and miserable.
Let's count up the ways in which Bethesda has misunderstood and misused the Fallout property.
My first REAL published book, about a guy who comes back from the dead due to a misunderstanding.
T w e n t y S i d e d
