My column this week talks about the lack of decent Marvel games. Of course, this is just a symptom of the larger problem that superhero games are apparently 80% utter worthless tripe.
There’s not much more to say about the column, so to kick off the conversation, let’s have a little thought experiment:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Experienced Points: Where Are The Marvel Games?”
The official bylaws of All Internet Videogames Discussion dictate that December is the month of looking back and January is the month of looking forward. So we made this episode to bring our podcast into compliance. Also because we didn’t have anything else to discuss. Also because we actually wanted to talk about these games. Also because it was the only way to get Josh to shut up about Crusader Kings.
Related: Look at this post from last January where I looked ahead to 2015.
Hosts: Josh, Rutskarn, Shamus, Campster.
Episode edited by Rachel.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #135: 2016”
Everyone else is busy looking forward to what 2016 will bring, so for my first post of the year I thought I’d go retro-hipster on you and look back to the 1970s. I see a lot of these crappy posts on Facebook like, “Only 60’s/70’s/80’s/90’s kids will remember…” But they’re filled with the same points again and againOften the re-poster is lazy and just changes the decade without altering the list, which results in crap lists that make no sense in a world where childhood lasts less than 20 years. and it’s often obvious stuff you could pick up from watching (say) “That 70’s Show”. But That 70’s Show is to the 1970’s what the Pirates of the Caribbean ride is to dying of scurvy on the high seas in 1675.
So I thought I’d try to dig deep and come up with a bunch of details from the time period that don’t make the usual lists, and maybe a few that don’t make it into movies based in the time period. Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Remembering the 1970’s”
Link (YouTube) |
So maybe we didn’t make a lot of progress this week. And maybe our commentary rarely rose above the level of “LOL videogame logic!” But damn it, this was fun.
Let’s never ever do this again.
EDIT: Thanks for watching. We'll have the full stream up on YouTube some time in the next week. Until then, you can watch the VOD here.
Original Post:
We’re going to play festive holiday games like Crusader Kings where you take over the world and plot the death of your family. It’s all in good fun!
Link (YouTube) |
I’m not sure whether I respect KOTOR’s handling of the Selkath kids quest or am annoyed by it. On the one hand, in a modern (and unreasonably terrified you might miss content) game, the quest would have triggered when you approached the locked door whether you had it or not. And to an extent, that makes logical sense; at the very least, it doesn’t seem as if you knowing about the missing children ahead of time would make any difference as to whether or not the door would be open.
On the other hand, that aforementioned phobia that players might dare to actually miss content (the horror!) intensely irritates me on some base, indescribable level. And I have to give KOTOR props for committing to it, even if the player decides to take it as far as committing court-assisted suicide; I legitimately expected someone from the Republic to show up and go “No no no no,” right up to the moment we got electric-chaired.
I guess, ultimately, what I’m saying is that I respect KOTOR’s quest design, I just wish it was a little less clumsy with it. Which really is how I’ve come to feel about the game as a whole.
Link (YouTube) |
Fair warning: This episode is bound to be an instant classic. It starts off with some armchair game design, loses its way, makes a bunch of inside jokes, and then goes off-topic, while unendurable ages of indistinguishable combat roll on. Then we discover we came all this way for nothing, before it’s revealed that we REALLY came all this way for NOTHING.
That’s a really strange ending for a AAA game, even in 2003. It lacked closure. Oh well. Next up I think we’re going to play Dragon Age: Origins: The Deep Roads: Maximum Difficulty: Solo Run.
See you there.
The product of fandom run unchecked, this novel began as a short story and grew into something of a cult hit.
What makes this borderline indie title so much better than the AAA juggernauts that came before?
Computers keep getting more powerful. So why do the population caps for massively multiplayer games stay about the same?
Yeah, this game is a classic. But the story is idiotic, incoherent, thematically confused, and patronizing.
Most stories have plot holes. The failure isn't that they exist, it's when you notice them while immersed in the story.
The story of me. If you're looking for a picture of what it was like growing up in the seventies, then this is for you.
Since we're rebooting everything, MASH will probably come up eventually. Here are some casting suggestions.
Let's do some scripting to make the Starcraft AI fight itself, and see how smart it is. Or isn't.
Would you have survived in the middle ages?
Deus Ex Mankind Divided was a clumsy, tone-deaf allegory that thought it was clever, and it managed to annoy people of all political stripes.
T w e n t y S i d e d
