Until Dawn EP6: Bath Time

By Shamus Posted Friday Nov 18, 2016

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 95 comments


Link (YouTube)

Here is the story about freezing pipes I promised in this episode.

Chris takes a moment to hate on the show Heroes. I agree. That show was terrible and frustrating. It had all of these interesting ideas, but they were buried under awful ideas, then undermined by inconsistent characters, before being ruined by directionless writing. The first season of the show had no idea what it wanted to be about or where any of the plot threads were going. It took me a long time to realize the writers had no plan. They would introduce an idea, toy with it, then wander off and do something else. I kept waiting for all those ideas to come together. I couldn’t believe the show was as random and scattershot as it seemed, which is why I hung around so long.

Despite the title, there weren’t any “Heroes” in the show. Nobody dedicated themselves to helping people. They just fought each other. Or rather, they spent 99% of an episode talking about fighting each other, and then there would be some embarrassing special effects as the fight began, and then we’d cut away and return once the fight was over, because if there was one thing this superhero show hated more than a coherent plot, it was excitement. You’ll see more action watching old Perry Mason reruns.

I think a big part of the problem is that I was really hungry for superhero stories. The Spider-Man series had just been run into the ground. Same goes for the X-Men movies. The Marvel Cinematic Universe was still a year or so away. If I’d realized we were on the threshold of a new age of brilliant cinematic superhero adaptations, I never would have bothered with this cheap, sad, dull, incoherent, idiotic band of no-name non-heroic mopes.

I guess the Japanese guy who could travel through time was pretty cool sometimes.

 


 

Until Dawn EP5: Corndogs?

By Shamus Posted Thursday Nov 17, 2016

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 50 comments


Link (YouTube)

There’s a jumpscare right around the 14:30 mark here, and it doesn’t make any sense. It’s a jumpscare for the audience and not the characters, which is a problem I’d just been complaining about a few seconds earlier. Mike is looking through the binoculars and a face appears. For one thing, the face is very close. Since the characters are standing on top of a steep slope / small cliff, I have no idea how anyone could stand that particular distance in front of the binoculars without hovering above the ground. More importantly, Mike gives no reaction whatsoever. Either Mike is in on this murder (in the style of Scream) or the storyteller is engaging in flagrant shenanigans.

Josh suggested that maybe it was Jessica jumping in front of the binoculars for a second, but if you freeze the frame you get:

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Until Dawn EP5: Corndogs?”

 


 

Crash Dot Com Part 2: The Art Coder

By Shamus Posted Thursday Nov 17, 2016

Filed under: Personal 56 comments

It’s now 1999, and I have an odd job. Our product is a multi-user social environment. In four years, Second Life will show up and make a more successful version of this idea, but for right now we’re doing pretty good. Sometimes clients come along and ask us to build custom environments for them. A lot of these projects land on my desk.

I’m technically an “artist” in the sense that a lot of my job involves creating models and textures. But I’m more an engineer in terms of inclination and skill set. I don’t have a solid grip on aesthetics and I really envy my fellow artists who can nail a particular architectural style like “Gothic”, “modern”, “whimsical”, or whatever. I don’t have the flair for that sort of work. When I need to make something, I have a very literalist, brute-force approach to designing stuff. If someone sends me sketches or reference photos for what they want, I’m likely to just build exactly what I’m shown, while the real artists on the team are able to get the “vibe” the client is going for.

In any case, I see myself as a bridge between artists and engineers. I make tools to help automate some of the drudgery work of the art pipeline and sometimes I come up with solutions to time-consuming problems.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Crash Dot Com Part 2: The Art Coder”

 


 

Until Dawn EP4: Guest Starring Wolverine

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Nov 16, 2016

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 84 comments


Link (YouTube)

So let’s talk about this wolverine. Apparently the wolverine went into the house and lived there without tearing up the furniture, knocking stuff over, or leaving droppings all over the place. Then it went to the bathroom where there is no food or water or anything else that might be of use to a small mammal without opposable thumbs. And then it somehow closed the door behind him. Then it went into the space under the sink, and also closed that door.

What I’m saying is that this wolverine is still smarter than every last one of these teenagers.

 


 

Master of Firin’ Sword CH1: The Art of Powerdice

By Rutskarn Posted Wednesday Nov 16, 2016

Filed under: Lets Play 79 comments

In Mount and Blade, you play an upwardly mobile and clinically indestructible side of medieval beefsteak. It’s a power trip of a game; through determination and self-actualization alone, you swizzle armies around you like cotton candy and personally slay the population of a modest kingdom. If you desire it, and play for long enough, it is an absolute guarantee that you can become the king of the world. Obviously, it was only a matter of time before someone adapted this franchise around celebrated works of Polish-language historical literature. Enter Mount and Blade: With Fire and Sword.

Very little has mechanically changed, but these changes have insidious effects on the greater experience. For example, there’s bullets. There’s rows of guys firing bullets. There’s rows of guys on horsebacks firing bullets at you. And the important thing, the crucial thing, is that you can’t duel the bullets.

Fans of the franchise who were used to exterminating entire castles of pseudovikings with nothing more than a caffeinated blocking reflex and a good fast battleaxe were quickly discovering just what 17th century Poland thinks of heroes. And many of them, it must be said, questioned the appeal of a mass combat game where you often die immediately and unavoidably. From a strategic viewpoint, it’s not unlike playing regular Mount and Blade during a thunderstorm.

Or so they think! Join me now as I relate to you my secret to success as an Eastern European warrior-poet: a terrible fear of being shot.

It's not obvious, but all of these settings are at their most punishingly difficult extremes.
It's not obvious, but all of these settings are at their most punishingly difficult extremes.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Master of Firin’ Sword CH1: The Art of Powerdice”

 


 

This Dumb Industry: All These Dumb Games

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Nov 15, 2016

Filed under: Column 245 comments

My column this week was going to be an extra-long explanation on why Twitter is cultural poison that’s turning everyone into insane hateful assholes. On one hand, I really do think that Twitter has some nasty emergent properties when combined with human natureOn top of the usual problems we see on other social media platforms like Facebook.And no, this isn’t just a re-hash of the C.G.P. Grey video on Anger Germs.. On the other hand, I’ve just gone through a solid week of watching people be shitty to each other and I’m basically out of emotional stamina at this point. I want to get as far from controversial topics as I can get.

So maybe I’ll put a pin in the Twitter rant for now.

Since I don’t have a column, let’s have a conversation…

I’m working on my end-of-year series (which will probably run in this space in late December) and I’m wondering what I’ve missed and what I’ll be able to play before the year wraps up.

Given the sheer volume of retro remakes, remakes, homages, indies, AAA titles, reboots, mobile stuff, and good old games for cheap, we’re positively swimming in games. The number of available titles keeps going up, but (assuming you didn’t just retire or lose your job) the supply of gaming hours hasn’t. With that in mind: What are you playing these days? New stuff? If you’re playing old stuff, are you exploring stuff you missed when it was new, or revisiting an old favorite? What’s really standing out for you this year? Have you played (or avoided) anything specifically because we talked about it here on the site?

 


 

Diecast #176: Dishonored 2, Tyranny, N7 Day

By Shamus Posted Monday Nov 14, 2016

Filed under: Diecast 101 comments



Hosts: Josh, Rutskarn, Shamus, Campster. Episode edited by Issac.

Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #176: Dishonored 2, Tyranny, N7 Day”