T w e n t y S i d e d
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “#38 No Need to Thank Me”
#38 No Need to Thank Me
Baldur’s Gate III
I was expecting many things to happen in the year of Our Lord 2019, but the announcement of a third entry in the Baldur’s Gate series was not one of them. After all, the last entry in the series, the Throne of Bhaal expansion, is now old enough to buy cigarettes in most states. There was said to be a third game in the series planned back in 2003Working title The Black Hound., but it was never made, and is now consigned to the history’s what-if pile alongside a third Black Isle FalloutAlso never made, working title Van Buren.. Since then, Beamdog (developer of the BG and BG2 enhanced editions) has occasionally made noises about making a sequel, but their resources were never equal to the task.
But lo, it has returned. A franchaise last seen in 2001. That was a whole different era. Having Baldur’s Gate III announced at this late hour makes me feel unmoored from linear time. It’s like if Al Gore ran for president, or Phil Jackson suddenly announced he was getting Shaq and Kobe back together again. For RPG fans of a certain age, Baldur’s Gate is one of the four gospels of the Infinity Engine era, along with the two Fallouts and Planescape: Torment.
I know this much: if I can't romance a Mind Flayer, the game will be an unmitigated failure.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Baldur’s Gate III”
#37 How Rude
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “#37 How Rude”
Spider-Man Part 19: Times Square
After the prison break, Doctor Octopus goes to Times Square and releases Devil’s Breath. It turns into a fine red mist and floats out over the city. The cloud covers the area and Doc puts on a breathing mask. Yes, he waits until he’s enveloped in the cloud before he puts on the mask. No, I have no idea why the animator chose to have him do things in that order. It’s weird.
We do a time-cut to one day later. A lot happens in this missing day. Aunt May gets infected, but keeps tending to the sick and homelessShe wears a mask to avoid spreading the disease. I mean, in most cutscenes, anyway. at FEAST because that’s what saints do. Mary Jane releases a special report that says Devil’s Breath was invented at Oscorp. That’s a huge break for Doctor Octopus, since his plan was to expose Osborn and without this report he had no way of doing that. Then again, this report doesn’t seem to change the way anyone thinks or behaves so…. I dunno.
Yuri fishes Spider-Man out of the river and gets him patched up. After that he returns to duty, even though he still has “14 broken bones”.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Spider-Man Part 19: Times Square”
Yahtzee’s Dev Diary: Shamus Young Let’s Play and Critique of BRTV
No column this week. It’s a long story. Actually, that’s not true. It’s a short story, it’s just not very interesting. At any rate, I made a video this weekend and so I offer that instead.
Yahtzee Croshaw is making “12 Games in 12 Months”. Right now he’s on month 2. His game this month was a top-down strategy game where you run a televised battle royale. You place the camera and have some minor tools for influencing the the action. The Escapist invited me to test the game and do a reaction / critique video of it. So that’s what this is:
Link (YouTube) |
As people have pointed out on YouTube:
Yes, I missed the detail that, as the host / officiator / producer of this murder-show, it’s the player’s job to place the safe zone. It even says so right on the screen. Somehow I missed this detail and went right to clicking on the person I wanted the drone camera to follow. I’m not sure how I overlooked that detail. I guess part of the problem is that I can’t read and talk at the same time, which you kind of need to do if you’re making an off-the-cuff reaction video like this.
Anyway, if you’re of a mind to watch a video then I hope you’ll give it a thumbs up so my work doesn’t look pathetic next to the rest of the Escapist’s offerings.
We’re getting back to normal content tomorrow with the return of the Spider-Man series.
Proc-gen Starship
Thanks for all your kind comments last time. And the helpful feedback. Even though they were a sensational success, we’re going to be taking a week off from tubes this time. Don’t worry! The beating heart of spaceship design will return! But while we’re waiting for the REAL key to amazing science fiction design that is comically oversized exposed black rubber tubing, I figured I’d try approaching from a slightly different angle. Instead of starting with blocky cubes and then adding a few round bits, let’s start with the round bits first.
Now, there was some consternation over terminology last time. I kept calling these round things “Lathes” which I thought was a time saving and cleverly descriptive strategy. Mystefied onlookers began to question if I meant “Cylinders” or “Solids of Revolution” or perhaps “Compound rectalinear hemi-toroidal faceted bounding nets” and while all of those are accuratethough I have some questions about that crazy “cylinder” idea my favorite suggestion was to call them eye-sores and move on.
Before generating any eye-sores, let us begin, as before, with a completely accurate picture of: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Proc-gen Starship”
Diecast #263: Satisfactory, RPG Mechanics Everywhere
I was pretty out of it this week, and as a result you’re getting a meandering, unfocused, slightly off-topic Diecast. That’s fine. I know some of you enjoy a good meander.
Hosts: Paul, Shamus. Episode edited by Issac.
Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #263: Satisfactory, RPG Mechanics Everywhere”
From The Archives:
The Opportunity Crunch
No, brutal, soul-sucking, marriage-destroying crunch mode in game development isn't a privilege or an opportunity. It's idiocy.
The Strange Evolution of OpenGL
Sometimes software is engineered. Sometimes it grows organically. And sometimes it's thrown together seemingly at random over two decades.
Why The Christmas Shopping Season is Worse Every Year
Everyone hates Black Friday sales. Even retailers! So why does it exist?
Black Desert Online
This Korean title would be the greatest MMO ever made if not for the horrendous monetization system. And the embarrassing translation. And the terrible progression. And the developer's general apathy towards its western audience.
Steam Summer Blues
This mess of dross, confusion, and terrible UI design is the storefront the big publishers couldn't beat? Amazing.
D&D Campaign
WAY back in 2005, I wrote about a D&D campaign I was running. The campaign is still there, in the bottom-most strata of the archives.
Self-Balancing Gameplay
There's a wonderful way to balance difficulty in RPGs, and designers try to prevent it. For some reason.
Raytracing
Raytracing is coming. Slowly. Eventually. What is it and what will it mean for game development?
Spec Ops: The Line
A videogame that judges its audience, criticizes its genre, and hates its premise. How did this thing get made?
Patreon!
Why Google sucks, and what made me switch to crowdfunding for this site.