Link (YouTube) |
I wasn’t in this episode. I also haven’t watched the episode. And I barely remember this part of the game. So I have nothing to say about these events. Let’s just watch it together and ponder how it’s still more fun to watch this game than to actually play The Old Republic.
If you had asked me yesterday how important Twitter was to me I’d have said, “Meh. I check it once an hour or so, post a few messages a day.” And that’s technically true. But it wasn’t until now that I realized just how integral the service is to my internet habits.
Twitter has been down for about 3 hours, and I keep getting caught in these stupid little obsessive behavioral loops:
I would never have guessed the service was this important to my information diet, but there you go. I can’t believe we’re supposed to be the smartest mammals on this planet. This is disgraceful.
The show is late. There are no show notes. I am not in this episode. The answers behind these mysteries are bound together: My daughter Rachel – who edits these things – turned 18 this weekend, and I was at her party. Also, her graphics card died, meaning she can’t use her computer until the replacement arrives.
But Josh came through and edited the episode. Rachel’s new card will arrive tomorrow. Things should be back to normal-ish next week.
Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #137: Amplitude, Cradle, Slime Ranching”
My column this week is why I suspect that System Shock 3 isn’t going to have the stuff I loved about System Shock 2.
Honestly, if this industry was capable of making System Shock 3, it would have. Last time somebody tried we got BioShock, which was profitable, popular, critically acclaimed, and not at all what I wanted. It was a fine game on its own merits, but it was missing most of the major features that made System Shock special to me. It was just “pretty smart, for a shooter”. Replacing Andrew Ryan with Shodan isn’t going to magically transform BioShock back into System Shock.
This is not to say that System Shock 2 was a perfect game. This goes double for System Shock 1. It’s just that they represent a kind of game that nobody wants to fund, develop, or market in today’s AAA world.
I really hope that in a year or so I’ll get to write a column about how wrong I was about this, but this is how things look to me right now.
Link (YouTube) |
I had other things going on, so I’m sorry I missed this part of the stream. I love the original Left 4 Dead campaigns and characters.
I’ve never played realism mode so I probably would have been a massive liability. Which makes me even more sad that I missed it. If I’d been there I might have prevented them from attaining such a glorious pro-level victory.
During the new year, we got together and watched Josh play some incomprehensible game about maps and dialog boxes? Or something? Anyway, here it is, for those who missed it.
Link (YouTube) |
This is the first half of the hangout. In the second half everyone played Left 4 Dead. That will go up tomorrow.
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be on Spoiler Warning with us, here is your chance to see for yourself. This is what we do every week before recording the show: Fifteen minutes of incomprehensible dicking around, troubleshooting inscrutable problems and cussing at wayward technology.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “New Year’s Hangout: Crusader Kings II”
I’ve spent most of this series complaining about aspects of Mass Effect 2 that a majority of fansCompletely anecdotal. I have no idea what the “real” consensus is out there. don’t see is a problem. So let me briefly be a contrarian in the other direction and defend something everyone complains about: I think the Suicide Mission was a really interesting idea. I think it was a thematically appropriate way to wrap up a game that focused so much on preparation and team-building. It was the first time the series really did anything with the concept of Shepard being a military commander aside from him always leading 3-person teams into gunfights. It justified the large team size and it gave you an in-game reward for doing all those loyalty missions.
Sure, there are problems with how the suicide mission plays out. But unlike the problems with the plot, premise, and dialog, these aren’t baffling failures at basic tasks. The suicide mission was a new idea not just to BioWare but to AAA RPGs in general. It was challenging, it was different, and so its shortcomings are a lot more understandable in a game design sense.
The Normandy goes through the Omega-4 relay to the collector base. There’s a little space battle that reacts to the decisions you’ve made regarding your ship. If you’ve been doing the research, talking to allies, gathering resources, and paying for the upgrades, then the characters will respond. “Gosh! Good thing we upgraded the anti-decombobulator!” If you haven’t, then the bad guys blow holes in the Normandy and maybe some squad members might die.
After that the Normandy lands on the Collector base and you get to divide your people into teams and tasks. If a job calls for someone with technical skills, then you can select anyone with any technical knowledge. This, combined with whether or not you did their loyalty mission, determines if they survive performing the task.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Mass Effect Retrospective 30: Suicide Mission”
Why are RPG economies so bad? Why are shopkeepers so mercenary, why are the prices so crazy, and why do you always end up a gazillionaire by the end of the game? Can't we just have a sensible balanced economy?
I'm a very casual fan of the series, but I gave Civilization VI a look to see what was up with this nuclear war simulator.
Would you have survived in the middle ages?
Two minutes of fun at the expense of a badly-run theme park.
For one of the most popular casual games in existence, Match 3 is actually really broken. Until one developer fixed it.
Everyone hates Black Friday sales. Even retailers! So why does it exist?
What is "Domino Worldbuilding" and how did it help to make Mass Effect one of the most interesting settings in modern RPGs?
Here is a long look at a game that tries to live up to a big legacy and fails hilariously.
C++ is a wonderful language for making horrible code.
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2012.
T w e n t y S i d e d
