Twenty Sided

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Dec 24, 2019

Filed under: Rants 44 comments

 Thankful to Origin Support?Previous Post

Next PostBethesda's Launcher is Everything You Expect 

This post isn’t relevant right now. This post is for the benefit of people in the future. Whenever I complain about the difficulty of getting screenshots or footage from a game, I often get asked perfectly reasonable questions like these:

Shamus, the game has a built-in camera mode and it looks fantastic. Why don’t you use that?
Shamus, why don’t you use the built-in streaming feature in this game?
Why don’t you use the Microsoft Game bar, or the equivalent feature in Steam, Origin, Uplay, GoG, or the Epic Games StoreHAHAHA. Just kidding. Epic Games Store doesn’t have any features.?

I get asked a question like this every few months by earnest and well-meaning people. I also get asked these questions by pushy and self-important recording platforms that assume they’re the first program to ever offer this feature and they just can’t IMAGINE how I survived before they came along.

So here is the complete answer to all of these questions, in a conveniently-linkable location…

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “I Don’t Need Your Stupid Game Bar”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Thankful to Origin Support?Previous Post

Next PostBethesda's Launcher is Everything You Expect 

44 comments

Diecast #284: The Last Mailbag of 2019

By Shamus Posted Monday Dec 23, 2019

Filed under: Diecast 86 comments

 Diecast #283: The Game Awards, System Shock DemoPrevious Post

Next PostDiecast #285: Guitar, Rimworld, Saints Row the Third 

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, or whatever is appropriate in your culture. If you’re not celebrating anything right now, then have a great Monday!

Also, say goodbye to the familiar header image. We’re getting a new one for the new year. In fact, I planned on having a new image every year, but I forgot in 2019 and so the 2018 header lingered for an extra year.

Direct download (MP3)
Direct download (ogg Vorbis)
Podcast RSS feed.

Hosts: Paul, Shamus. Episode edited by Issac.
Diecast284

Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #284: The Last Mailbag of 2019”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Diecast #283: The Game Awards, System Shock DemoPrevious Post

Next PostDiecast #285: Guitar, Rimworld, Saints Row the Third 

86 comments

Dénouement 2019 Part 1: The Year of Corporate Dystopia

By Shamus Posted Thursday Dec 19, 2019

Filed under: Industry Events 182 comments

 E3 2019: The Surprise Twist EndingPrevious Post

Next PostDénouement 2019 Part 2: The No-Show List 

It’s almost 2020! Welcome to the future, I guess. It’s a shame Cyberpunk 2077 didn’t come out in 2019, since that would have been thematically appropriate for a year where the AAA publishers all went full-on corporate dystopia.

Right now the gaming industry feels like the lamest cyberpunk novel ever written. 2019 didn’t give us any razorgirls, brain implants, or flying cars. No robo-arms. No glowing nano blades. No AI escaped out onto the internet to pursue its own agenda. No body-swapping. No robo-geishas. No glowing cyber eyes with a built-in HUD. There aren’t any 20 meter holographic billboards. If someone is cyber-jacking, it doesn’t mean they’re cracking through the corporate ICE layers to steal the designs for the new security bot while soaring on amphetamines, it means they’re watching PornHub.

While we didn’t get much in the way of cool cyberpunk shit this year, the big publishers went out of their way to behave like childishly cliché cyberpunk corps.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Dénouement 2019 Part 1: The Year of Corporate Dystopia”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 E3 2019: The Surprise Twist EndingPrevious Post

Next PostDénouement 2019 Part 2: The No-Show List 

182 comments

What Did You Love This Year?

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Dec 17, 2019

Filed under: Random 318 comments

 Raytraced Quake IIPrevious Post

Next PostEntitled to an Explanation 

My end-of-year writeup begins later this week. Once that’s going we’ll probably talk about all the games on my good / bad lists. But before we do that, I kinda wanted to read about what everyone else was into this year. The world of gaming is really big, and sometimes it’s good to step out of your particular sub-sub-subculture and try to see the big-ish picture. I know this blog is probably biased towards the stuff I’m into, but my readership is certainly going to have wider and more diverse tastes than I do.

So in the comments I’d like to hear:

Your favorite game(s) this year? You don’t have to pick a single favorite. If you loved 5 games, go ahead and list all 5. If you didn’t love any, that’s fine too. (Although please leave a comment saying so.)
What was your biggest disappointment this year? Like, what game did you expect to like, but didn’t?
What are you most looking forward to in 2020?

Please don’t limit yourself to 2019 games! If you spent all year playing Daikatana, that’s fineI mean, for the purposes of this list anyway. I do kinda question your taste in games.. Go ahead and list that. I’m less curious what the publishers are doing and more curious about what people are into.

Also, feel free to mix it up between console / PC / mobile / big budget / indie / MMO / single-player. It’s all good.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Raytraced Quake IIPrevious Post

Next PostEntitled to an Explanation 

318 comments

Diecast #283: The Game Awards, System Shock Demo

By Shamus Posted Monday Dec 16, 2019

Filed under: Diecast 100 comments

 Diecast #282: Christmas Lights, Streaming ServicesPrevious Post

Next PostDiecast #284: The Last Mailbag of 2019 

Next week will be the last Diecast of 2019. We’re taking off Dec 30^th, and we’ll be back on January 6^th. So if you have any 2019-specific questions, then now is the time. Also! SoldierHawke will be visiting in mid-January, so don’t forget to send in your questions for her. The email is in the header image.

Direct download (MP3)
Direct download (ogg Vorbis)
Podcast RSS feed.

Hosts: Paul, Shamus. Episode edited by Issac.
Diecast283

Show notes:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #283: The Game Awards, System Shock Demo”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Diecast #282: Christmas Lights, Streaming ServicesPrevious Post

Next PostDiecast #284: The Last Mailbag of 2019 

100 comments

Programming Vexations Part 13: Project Files

By Shamus Posted Thursday Dec 12, 2019

Filed under: Programming 62 comments

 Programming Vexations Part 12: SOA vs. AOSPrevious Post

Next PostNo content today. Except for this. 

Here we are at the end of this series. I was hoping we’d get a public beta of JAI before the end of the year and I could end this by experimenting with a new language, but it looks like that didn’t pan out.

This last vexation isn’t remotely the most serious problem, but it’s the one that annoys me the mostOr maybe it’s second, after header files..

Of all the things that suck the joy out of writing code, I think that managing project files is pretty high on the list. This is sort of linked to the problem where integrating libraries in C++ is a madhouse and a chore. If using someone else’s code was easier, then the headaches of setting up project files would be less of an issue. But these two problems exacerbate each other and force you to spend time putting all the files in the right places and referring to them in the right order.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Programming Vexations Part 13: Project Files”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Programming Vexations Part 12: SOA vs. AOSPrevious Post

Next PostNo content today. Except for this. 

62 comments

Gamers Aren’t Toxic

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Dec 10, 2019

Filed under: Column 289 comments

 Who Broke the In-Game Economy?Previous Post

Next PostDomino Worldbuilding and the Brilliance of Mass Effect 

This one has been on my heart for a long time. To about half of you, the title of this article probably sounds like trolling. But after watching the same argument get stuck in the same rut for the same reasons for the 1,000th time, I thought I’d try to help un-stick the debate.

Link (YouTube)

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Gamers Aren’t Toxic”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Who Broke the In-Game Economy?Previous Post

Next PostDomino Worldbuilding and the Brilliance of Mass Effect 

289 comments

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