T w e n t y S i d e d
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “#14 Sometimes a Spear is Just a Spear”
#14 Sometimes a Spear is Just a Spear
#13 The Sun-Tzu of Bartering
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “#13 The Sun-Tzu of Bartering”
Spider-Man Part 10: The Vertical Slice
Next up we get to play through the E3 demo from last year. This scene hasn’t changed very much since that demo. I mean, aside from the silly puddle controversy.
The only notable difference between the E3 demo and the final game is that the E3 demo had Mr. Negative participating in this sequence. In the release version, Mr. Negative doesn’t show up and you just fight his mooks.
I can see why this mission was chosen for the E3 Demo. The entire sequence serves as a vertical slice of the game. We sample a little bit of all the gameplay features in a short time, in a situation where the viewer doesn’t really need to know the story to follow the scene. There are a lot of spectacle-heavy cutscenes, yet the plot doesn’t really progress here and the whole thing could be removed from the game without the player missing out on any exposition or story beats.
The Vertical Slice
Mr. Negative's goons are 'taking over' the Kingpin's property by shooting all of his mooks. I think Mr. Negative needs to read up on how property ownership works, because it doesn't work like this.
Spider-Man arrives at a Fisk Construction building to find Demons wandering around the half-built skyscraper, systematically murdering Fisk’s men.
We get a stealth section where we can pick off the Demon goons. Then we get some straight combat with the Demons. Then we get a few cutscenes to show off how the game can seamlessly transition from cinematics to gameplay. Then we do a bunch of quicktime events to stop several tons of flaming wreckage from landing on helpless civilians below. Then we show off the city and the swinging gameplay in a helicopter chase, which ends with a big action climax that’s about 90% cutscene and 10% gameplay.
This mission is so superfluous to the story and yet so perfect as a trade show demo that it makes me think this section was designed specifically for this purpose and wasn’t part of the story as written. I really dislike showy sequences that show off the cinematography at the expense of gameplay, but I’ll be the first to admit this is an excellent example of the form.
It’s a fun sequence full of slick moments, and I really enjoy playing through it aside from the…
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Spider-Man Part 10: The Vertical Slice”
Experienced Points: The Epic Games Store Needs Work
My column this week is about how the Epic Games Store is gobbling up exclusives. This is earning EGS a lot of anger, but most of the anger is over stuff that Steam has been doing for years. I’m fine with hating on EGS, but can we please not hold them to a higher standard than Steam?
One thing I didn’t touch on in the column is the relationship between Epic Games and the money-harvesting creeps at Tencent. Tencent bought a 40% stake in Epic back in 2013, and having that much of the company owned by an outside force is certainly a potential problem.
When I first heard about the merger / partnership / whatever, I wasn’t really worried. I assumed that it wasn’t a big deal, since they “only” owned 40% of Epic. That’s not a controlling share. But company culture is more important than share ownership, and Epic is enthusiastically embracing the habits and mindset of Tencent. I know you come to this site for text and not video, but if you’ve got twenty minutes to spare then the following video by Dan Olson is definitely worth a watch:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Experienced Points: The Epic Games Store Needs Work”
Andromeda Part 24: The Boss Fight at the End
Maybe this series was longer than it needed to be. My original retrospective covered all three games in 50 entries. Here I’ve spent half that on just a single game. Despite that, I’ve skipped at least as much material as I’ve covered. Sometimes I worried that I wasn’t covering the game in enough detail to really drive home how numerous the problems are, and other times I felt like I was beating a dead horse. Mass Effect Andromeda is an enormous game and there’s a lot wrong with it.
Regardless of how we got here, we’re now at the endgame. Ryder chases the Archon to the heart of the Meridian control system for…
The Big Dumb Showdown
I know it's hard to get a sense of scale from these screenshots, but that's the Archon and Scott on top of this big mound of space triangles.
So we arrive at the central control room. The Archon is up on a platform, using his floating robot to use Scott to use SAM to use Meridian to summon a giant robo-worm for you to fight. He gives us one last monologue before the fight starts, and it’s yet another repetition of the same cartoon dialog we’ve been hearing since the first act of the game.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Andromeda Part 24: The Boss Fight at the End”
Diecast #250: Borderlands 3, Risk of Rain 2, Playing Games “Wrong”
It’s April 1st, and tradition holds that I should deck the site out in silly images or somesuch. I didn’t have time for that this week, so a header image with nonsensical round dice will have to do. Also, let this serve as a friendly reminder to read the internet carefully today.
PAX East happened this past weekend. If I’d been doing my job, then I would have watched the show on Twitch and reported back with the highlights. Instead I watched the Gearbox show where they showed off Borderlands 3, and then ignored everything else.
I’ve wanted to go to PAX for the last couple of years, but I didn’t want to drive 600 miles (each way) in a car that was clearly in its twilight years. (And flying is just too dang expensive.) We have a reliable car now, and my new gig at the Escapist means I might be able to finagle a couple of press passes. So PAX East 2020 is a real possibility.
If any of you attended the show this year, please tell me your impressions. I don’t care if your story is, “I fell asleep in the car for 8 hours instead of entering the convention center.” I’d just like to hear some first-hand accounts from people who aren’t journalists.
Hosts: Paul, Shamus. Episode edited by Issac.
Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #250: Borderlands 3, Risk of Rain 2, Playing Games “Wrong””
#12 The Name Game
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “#12 The Name Game”
From The Archives:
Video Compression Gone Wrong
How does image compression work, and why does it create those ugly spots all over some videos and not others?
Blistering Stupidity of Fallout 3
Yeah, this game is a classic. But the story is idiotic, incoherent, thematically confused, and patronizing.
Control
A wild game filled with wild ideas that features fun puzzles and mind-blowing environments. It has a great atmosphere, and one REALLY annoying flaw with its gameplay.
The Truth About Piracy
What are publishers doing to fight piracy and why is it all wrong?
What is Vulkan?
There's a new graphics API in town. What does that mean, and why do we need it?
Secret of Good Secrets
Sometimes in-game secrets are fun and sometimes they're lame. Here's why.
Bowlercoaster
Two minutes of fun at the expense of a badly-run theme park.
Quakecon 2011 Keynote Annotated
An interesting but technically dense talk about gaming technology. I translate it for the non-coders.
The Mistakes DOOM Didn't Make
How did this game avoid all the usual stupidity that ruins remakes of classic titles?
Twelve Years
Even allegedly smart people can make life-changing blunders that seem very, very obvious in retrospect.