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”
Link (YouTube) |
And so our thrilling game of Second Edition D&D comes to an end. I managed to survive my serious case of self-inflicted deadly poison long enough to wander off to do the job, alone, with incomplete information. Josh cast his one spell and had to take a nap. Chris took no actions whatsoever, thereby making him the winner by virtue of being the person to make the fewest number of idiotic blunders.
Also there was something about Jedi and fish people in there? I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention to that stuff.
The D&D seems to have gone over well. We’re currently talking about maybe doing some more of this, perhaps outside of Spoiler Warning. We’ll see.
Five hundred and ninety-nine U.S. dollars is indeed a lot to ask for a gaming peripheral. My column this week talks about the price, why I think it went up so sharply, and why it has me a little worried.
It’s the classic manufacturing problem:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Experienced Points: $600 for the The Oculus Rift?”
The noise coming from the shower/sick wing is enough to put us all off sleep for a while. It’s not the screams–it wouldn’t be the finale of a big match without those. It’s the crying.
The world’s greatest halfling Blood Bowl player is in there sobbing like a broken pump.
You might think that’s because his limbs look like licorice and he’s so sauced up with blood and pitch mud the apothecary needs a sponge to find which side’s up. Then again, you might think he’s sobbing because he’s the world’s greatest halfling Blood Bowl player. And all my bitter cynicism aside–I think you might be right about that.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Half Time CH14: Pipe Dream”
Hosts: Josh, Campster, Mumbles. Episode edited by Rachel.
Is this the first time Mumbles has hosted? I think it is! And I wasn’t there to see it.
Since I wasn’t in the show, I put my thoughts in the show notes below.
Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #136: Oculus Rift, Cibele, Skyrim Mods”
It's not a good movie, but it was made with good intentions and if you look closely you can find a few interesting ideas.
Why spend millions on visuals that are just a distraction from the REAL game of hotbar-watching?
A video Let's Play series I collaborated on from 2009 to 2017.
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2016.
Do you like electronic music? Do you like free stuff? Are you okay with amateur music from someone who's learning? Yes? Because that's what this is.
This version of Silver Sable is poorly designed, horribly written, and placed in the game for all the wrong reasons.
Dear people of the internet: Please stop doing these horrible idiotic things when you talk to each other.
No Man's Sky is a game seemingly engineered to create a cycle of anticipation and disappointment.
Would you have survived in the middle ages?
A videogame that judges its audience, criticizes its genre, and hates its premise. How did this thing get made?
T w e n t y S i d e d
