Diecast #328: Happy New Year!

By Shamus Posted Monday Jan 4, 2021

Filed under: Diecast 132 comments

Thank goodness 2020 is over. COVID-19 has vanished, everyone’s jobs went back to normal, and Republicans and Democrats are finally friends again. I’m glad we put all of that unpleasantness behind us. Please enjoy this video game podcast where we spend an unusual amount of time talking about pornography and movies for some reason?

Sorry for all the noisy children on Paul’s end. That’s actually my fault. We normally record in the evenings after his kids are in bed, but my sleep schedule forced us to reschedule this time. I don’t know if you’ve ever lived in a house with more than 4 children, but quiet is just not obtainable in the middle of the afternoon.



Hosts: Paul, Shamus. Episode edited by Issac.
Diecast328


Link (YouTube)

Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #328: Happy New Year!”

 


 

Jedi Fallen Order Part 18: Let’s Team Up and Be Idiots Together!

By Shamus Posted Thursday Dec 31, 2020

Filed under: Retrospectives 95 comments

You might remember that last time our hero Cal Kestis had just gotten into a fight with Malicos. Cal didn’t want to join a Jedi cult run by Darth Manson and Malicos didn’t want Cal to not join.

Earlier in this series I praised how gracefully it created an unwinnable fight without running into the obnoxious problem of “Failure is Forbidden until it Becomes Mandatory“. This fight isn’t nearly as successful at doing that.

In a story sense, it makes sense that Cal can’t win this duel. If Jedi powers were academia, then Cal is in middle school and Malicos has a couple of PhDs. It would feel juvenile and fanfiction-ish if Cal went around casually besting Sith Lords and Jedi Masters. This is what made me dislike Galen Starkiller from the Force Unleashed series. He was so ludicrously powerful that he broke the universeIt doesn’t help that he had the personality of a wooden plank with a frowny face painted on it.. As a writer, It’s incredibly dangerous to create a character who is both far more powerful than Luke Skywalker while at the same time being far less interesting. So I’m glad that Cal doesn’t go down that same road by winning this fight. 

On the other hand, this is a video game and you can get good at it. On my second playthrough it was sort of hilarious / annoying to have the fight stop for a cutscene interlude where the writer pretended like Cal was struggling. 

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Jedi Fallen Order Part 18: Let’s Team Up and Be Idiots Together!”

 


 

Diecast #327: Nobody Will Hear This

By Shamus Posted Monday Dec 28, 2020

Filed under: Diecast 101 comments

We’re in the dead zone between Christmas and New Year. Typically this is the week where the site traffic reaches its nadir. Most of us come here to fill the dead space in our day: Commute. Coffee break. Time between classes. The waiting room of the ripperdoc. You get the idea.

But those quiet moments are in short supply around the holidays, which means the site is a ghost town. That’s fine for me, since it gives me time to finish up my end-of-year writeup.

But if you’re one of the rare souls with time to kill in the last week of the year: Welcome! Let’s enjoy a quiet, low-key, low-stress discussion about topics of low importance.

Heads up: I’m going to spoil the season 2 finale of the Mandalorian, so if you haven’t seen it yet then proceed at your own risk.



Hosts: Paul, Shamus. Episode edited by Issac.
Diecast327


Link (YouTube)

Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #327: Nobody Will Hear This”

 


 

Merry Christmas

By Shamus Posted Thursday Dec 24, 2020

Filed under: Notices 73 comments

Merry Christmas, nerds. A couple of months ago we talked about Halloween vs. Christmas on the Diecast, and how it seems like Halloween is gradually moving to dethrone Christmas as the culturally dominant holiday. It hasn’t happened yet, but it could happen in the next 20 years. That’s pretty strange.

In any case: I hope you’re having a good one this year.

This has been a small Christmas for us. We used our Christmas money to arrange a visit with my oldest two kids over Thanksgiving. That was better than exchanging gifts. We were long overdue for a visit, even if it did leave us skint for a couple of months.

As an aside:

Some people balked at the idea that we were visiting with relatives in the age of COVID. To clear things up: They were tested before they made the trip, and we got tested after they left. We ONLY met with my kids, instead of having the usual gathering of the extended family. And since my kids live and work public service jobs in a tiny Texas town where nobody wears masks, the week-long visit represented a significant increase in safety for them. For one week they stopped being exposed to the reckless public.

It was a risk for us, but in a statistical sense this weeklong visit represented a very slight exposure risk – perhaps the same exposure risk my wife faces every time she goes to work – for a huge benefit. The only reason we could afford the visit was because COVID had made hotels and airfare so cheap. This was a pretty good tradeoff in terms of risk vs. reward.

So we’re having a small Christmas. That’s fine. We’ll end 2020 with a lowkey celebration. I can’t complain. I already got Something Unicorn – LED String Curtain Lights with Dimmer Switch for Teen Room, Girls Room, College Dorm, Nursery, Kids Room Décor. Perfect for Unicorn, Fairy & Rainbow Decoration. (Standard Version) for Christmas, and really that’s all anyone needs.

How about you? Having a good Christmas? Did Santa bring you anything cool?

 


 

Cyberpunk 2077: Missing Pieces

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Dec 22, 2020

Filed under: Column 139 comments

So Cyberpunk 2077 is here. Sort of. I mean, CD Projekt Red released it, but it feels like we’re still waiting for the rest of the game to arrive. Even in the occasional moments when the game isn’t exhibiting obvious bugs, the experience is full of these odd moments where it feels like there’s something missing. 

I want to talk about these odd moments and about my impressions of the game so far. If you’re worried about spoilers, then be aware that I’m going to mention the names of major characters and discuss some quests in the prologue. These spoilers are limited to the early parts of the game, but if you need to play through completely blind then you might want to skip this.

Anyway. I’m on my fourth-ish playthrough. Sorta. 

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Cyberpunk 2077: Missing Pieces”

 


 

Diecast #326: CYBERBUG 2077

By Shamus Posted Monday Dec 21, 2020

Filed under: Diecast 116 comments

Strangely enough, I’m one of the lucky ones. Cyberpunk 2077 is running pretty well for me. I’ve run into lots of visual problems, but very few issues that impact gameplay. I’m usually the cursed player, fighting my way through a sea of bugs and crashes while the masses chant, “But it works fine on MY machine!” at me. It’s nice to be on the other side of that for once. Although it would be even better if the game was working for everyone.


Hosts: Paul, Shamus. Episode edited by Issac.

Diecast326


Link (YouTube)

Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #326: CYBERBUG 2077”

 


 

Jedi Fallen Order Part 17: Return to Dathomir. Again.

By Shamus Posted Thursday Dec 17, 2020

Filed under: Retrospectives 86 comments

New lightsaber in hand, Cal leaves behind the frozen world of Ilum, the dumb Jedi obstacle course, and the collectible items that nobody wants to collect because this place sucks. We’re on our way back to Dathomir. 

This is our fourth attempt at getting into this silly temple: 

1) The gap is too big, give up and leave. 

2) A trap drops you to the bottom of the world and you fight a dragon-bat to get out. 

3) The vision that makes Cal break his lightsaber.

Just like the last time we were here, we need to meditate to progress. The door is otherwise impassible.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Jedi Fallen Order Part 17: Return to Dathomir. Again.”