NEWER POSTS

Ruts vs. Battlespire CH27: Fly the Deadly Skies

By Rutskarn Posted Wednesday Sep 21, 2016

Filed under: Lets Play 37 comments
Ruts vs. Battlespire CH26: The Running ManlingPrevious Post
Next PostRuts vs. Battlespire CH28: Hard Daedra's Night

I’m sitting on a bubble, dear reader–a glossy film of nervous perspiration stretched around two solid hours’ worth of gameplay. It’s taken weeks of trial and error to achieve a bubble this bloated, and I know all too well how little trial or error it’ll take to burst it again. Now’s my chance to really screw things up. In the words of Samwise Gamgee, if I take one more step, it’ll be the farthest I’ve ever been.

Only–it’s not a step. I’m leaping onto a glitchy-looking uneven platform to try to figure out how to use a completely novel and almost certainly unstable vehicle while dodging unkillable monsters who can take me down in one second. Which, and I don’t mean to be rude, makes the whole backpacking-through-fantasy-New-Zealand thing seem a bit candyass.

There may be a day when the courage of Cahmel fails! Oh, wow, look at the time waaAAAYAAGGH
There may be a day when the courage of Cahmel fails! Oh, wow, look at the time waaAAAYAAGGH

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Ruts vs. Battlespire CH27: Fly the Deadly Skies”

 

Rutskarn is a writer, author, wordsmith, text producer, article deviser, prose architect, and accredited language-talker. If you enjoy his contributions to this site you could always back his Patreon.

Ruts vs. Battlespire CH26: The Running ManlingPrevious Post
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37 comments

 

This Dumb Industry: Fixing No Man’s Sky

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Sep 20, 2016

Filed under: Column 116 comments
This Dumb Industry: The Sky isn't Worth Fighting ForPrevious Post
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Brace yourself, because this entry is going to be a bit self-indulgent. I know the world has moved on and everyone has long since stopped caring about No Man’s Sky, but I can’t let go. This game is a mixture of the very good with very bad, and that’s a mix that I always find captivating.

This is what I said about No Man’s Sky last week:

In fact, I’m hoping they made enough on this game that they can give it another try. I really do think that they have something special here. Imagine if the first iteration of Minecraft had been really awkward, frustrating, had a terrible building interface, and was constantly limiting and undermining your creative abilities because the developer thought the game should be focused on combat. I wouldn’t want the idea of a cube world to die on the vine. I’d want it to get another chance to become the creative, engaging, meme-spawning classic that was embraced as a hobby by millions worldwide.

I really do think that’s true. I think this is a game with the wrong set of mechanics. This is a game where the gameplay undermines the very features that attracted people to the game in the first place. Which leads to the question: Okay Shamus. If these mechanics don’t work, then what would?

So let’s try to answer that question.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “This Dumb Industry: Fixing No Man’s Sky”

 

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.

This Dumb Industry: The Sky isn't Worth Fighting ForPrevious Post
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116 comments

 

Diecast #168: Deus Ex Breach Mode, Charnel House, Brookhaven Experiment, For Honor

By Shamus Posted Monday Sep 19, 2016

Filed under: Diecast 78 comments
Diecast #167: Mystic Messenger, Star Citizen, PS4 ProPrevious Post
Next PostDiecast #169: The Bunker, Event [0], and Halloween Horror Nights



Hosts: Josh, Shamus, Campster. Episode edited by Rachel.

REMINDER: The RSS feed has changed as of a couple of weeks ago. The new feed is here: http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?feed=podcast.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #168: Deus Ex Breach Mode, Charnel House, Brookhaven Experiment, For Honor”

 

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 #167: Mystic Messenger, Star Citizen, PS4 ProPrevious Post
Next PostDiecast #169: The Bunker, Event [0], and Halloween Horror Nights

78 comments

 

Shamus Plays WoW #3: Into the Bandit’s Den

By Shamus Posted Sunday Sep 18, 2016

Filed under: WoW 91 comments
Shamus Plays WoW #2: Toiling in the Kobold MinesPrevious Post
Next PostShamus Plays WoW #4: What Happens in Goldshire...

We’re out behind the church. In the graveyard. Norman is looking around like he’s afraid he’s being followed.

So sad that granny has passed on. What should we write on her tombstone? I was thinking her name, followed by 'Beloved Mother'. Either that or just a huge skull. Either one.
So sad that granny has passed on. What should we write on her tombstone? I was thinking her name, followed by 'Beloved Mother'. Either that or just a huge skull. Either one.

I nod, “Nice. I like this. Lotta room for more dead people here, though. What say we fill this place up?”

Norman turns to me. “Look. This is a bit tricky, but warlocks are sort of outlawed a bit.”

“Explain that.”

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Shamus Plays WoW #3: Into the Bandit’s Den”

 

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.

Shamus Plays WoW #2: Toiling in the Kobold MinesPrevious Post
Next PostShamus Plays WoW #4: What Happens in Goldshire...

91 comments

 

Mystic Messenger EP3

By Shamus Posted Saturday Sep 17, 2016

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 35 comments
Mystic Messenger EP2Previous Post
Next PostTwenty Minutes With Primordia


Link (YouTube)

This “being called by people in the videogame” would be WAY too real for me. I’d actually be really uncomfortable with it. Also I hate taking on the phone. One of these boys would call me and I’d be like, “DUDE. Email me!”

Anyway. This was good for a laugh and I’m sorry if I got a bit mean at the end. This was a fun idea. I’m glad Mumbles suggested it, and I’m grateful to Josh for making it happen.

 

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.

Mystic Messenger EP2Previous Post
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35 comments

 

Rutskarn’s GMinars CH7: The Gamesbow 8-10

By Rutskarn Posted Saturday Sep 17, 2016

Filed under: Tabletop Games 36 comments
Rutskarn's GMinars CH7: The Gamesbow 5-7Previous Post
Next PostRutskarn's GMinars CH8: So Which is Right?

With this miniseries, I hope I’m demonstrating how important a game’s rules are. Mechanics direct and shape gameplay on a profound level. The first few games we talked about stretched their rules across the entire world, for GM and players alike, and asked the player characters to be essentially plugged in to an objective framework. The middle games demand only creativity and initiative of the GM and reserve almost all of their rules for players to interestingly determine success and failure. Now we’re onto the latter games, where the rules define how the players tell the story–and the GM doesn’t exist at all.

Mist-Robed Gate (2008)

The elevator pitch for Mist-Robed Gate: instead of dice, you use poker chips and a knife.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Rutskarn’s GMinars CH7: The Gamesbow 8-10”

 

Rutskarn is a writer, author, wordsmith, text producer, article deviser, prose architect, and accredited language-talker. If you enjoy his contributions to this site you could always back his Patreon.

Rutskarn's GMinars CH7: The Gamesbow 5-7Previous Post
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36 comments

 

Mystic Messenger EP2

By Shamus Posted Friday Sep 16, 2016

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 40 comments
Mystic Messenger Special EP1Previous Post
Next PostMystic Messenger EP3


Link (YouTube)

Not-so-fun fact: One of my migraines began during this segment. It hadn’t started to hurt for real yet, but I was getting the strange tingly vision and mystery painIf you ask me if I’m in pain, I’ll say yes, but if you ask me where it hurts I won’t be able to tell you aside from “somewhere in the vicinity of my head”. I can’t describe it. that serves as a warm-up for the Big Show. I was getting stressed and cranky and not thinking clearly. The smart thing to do would have been to bow out and leave the show to the rest of the team, but like I said in the previous sentence: I wasn’t thinking clearly. As a result, I didn’t have much to say about the game and I don’t remember much of this now. And I think I turned mean at the end of it. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.

Anyway, this was all very silly and makes me feel like I’m a thousand years old.

 

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.

Mystic Messenger Special EP1Previous Post
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40 comments

 
OLDER POSTS
From The Archives:

Another PC Golden Age?

Is it real? Is PC gaming returning to its former glory? Sort of. It's complicated.

 

The Best of 2016

My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2016.

 

The Best of 2011

My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2011.

 

Starcraft: Bot Fight

Let's do some scripting to make the Starcraft AI fight itself, and see how smart it is. Or isn't.

 

The Gradient of Plot Holes

Most stories have plot holes. The failure isn't that they exist, it's when you notice them while immersed in the story.

 

The Best of 2012

My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2012.

 

This is Why We Can’t Have Short Criticism

Here's how this site grew from short essays to novel-length quasi-analytical retrospectives.

 

Twelve Years

Even allegedly smart people can make life-changing blunders that seem very, very obvious in retrospect.

 

What is Piracy?

It seems like a simple question, but it turns out everyone has a different idea of right and wrong in the digital world.

 

The Plot-Driven Door

You know how videogames sometimes do that thing where it's preposterously hard to go through a simple door? This one is really bad.