So the themes and premise of Fallout 3 are wrong. And the setting is wrong. So now we have to get by on the strength of the relationships in the game. That’s too bad, since…
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “The Blistering Stupidity of Fallout 3, Part 3”
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I make fun of Josh in the episode because his playstyle feels all wrong. Although like he says, it DOES get the job done. And assuming you’re new to the series, this probably gives you a really good idea of what your first play-through is going to look like.
I don’t have much to say about this part of the game that I didn’t say in the episode, so let me go on a digression regarding the sequel:
I’ve been playing Arkham City on NewGame+. It sounded like a fun idea at first, but it turns out it’s actually just really annoying. Like most NG+ modes, it lets you play through the entire story again, but you keep all of your upgrades from your initial play-through and newer, tougher foes are thrown in the mix. That’s really nice, since the first third of the game is normally pretty light on combat.
My problem is that you don’t get the flashing indicator showing when someone is about to attack. At first this is fine: You just judge the fight by reading the body language of your foes. But late in the game fights are moving fast, there’s particle effects and smoke, the camera is spinning all over the place, and crowds are dense. Also, once in a while a mook runs up to you and then mysteriously pauses for three seconds before taking a swing at you. You’ll see him coming, hit the counter button, and break your flow. It feels like a battle against the camera and dice rolls more than mastering the controls. I admire the intent, but I don’t think it quite works.
My column this week is about how rebooting a series gives you a license to make something new and unexpected.
You could turn it around and say that this is really a column about how making story-based sequels is a trap for the writer that turns something fresh and new into mindless fanservice and plot holes.
In today’s Square Enix press conference at E3, they showed off the upcoming Deus Ex: Humanity Divided. Instead of amazing us with a daring new world, they ticked off the list of stuff we expect to see in the game. Yes, the Illuminati will be there, those rascals! Instead of being intrigued by the premise I listened to the presentation thinking, “This doesn’t fit with Deus Ex lore at all, and conflicts with known events both past and future.”
Discussion: What other games would benefit from a clean slate approach to lore? Which ones are sacred and shouldn’t be rebooted?
Electronic Arts is doing their press conference today at 1PM Pacific Time. After that will be Ubisoft, and then some other stuff.
We will be streaming the events and talking over them, giving our thoughts as things are revealed. Both the feed and the chat are embedded below. If those don’t work, then you can go here to see it on Twitch: twitch.tv/spoilerwarningshow. We’ll probably start streaming about ten minutes before the event begins.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Hangout: E3 Day Zero Coverage”
Thanks to Josh for editing this episode while I was recovering from injury and trying to catch up with my work.
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Hosts: Shamus, Campster, Josh, Mumbles, and Rutskarn.
Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #108: Jurassic World, Town of Salem, Steam Summer Sale”
E3 kicks off tonight with the Bethesda press conference. Josh and I plan to stream it and give live commentary. We expect Bethesda to discuss Fallout 4, Doom 4, and maybe even Dishonored 2.
You can watch the stream here: twitch.tv/spoilerwarningshow or try your luck with the embed below:
(Stream over. Since Twich refuses to archive anything, the embed has been removed, rather than turned into a broken link.)
If it works, we’ll upload the thing to YouTube. If not, we’ll just play another videogame.
EDIT: So that’s it! Thanks for watching everyone.
It didn’t really work out the way we wanted. People had to stream our channel AND the Bethesda channel, and the two were of course out of sync, and it was awkward and not ideal. I have no idea if it will be legal or feasible to have a proper archive version of the exchange. We’ll see.
We tried.
For those that missed it:
Doom 4 (Called simply “DOOM”) looks like a high-speed, high-damage, crowds-of-foes experience like the original, and not a slow-paced peek-a-boo in the dark like Doom3. Also a super-easy map editor. We were surprised and interested.
Dishonored 2: You can play as Emily? Sounds interesting. Too bad they still have Captain Boring as the outsider.
Battlecry: Meh.
Elder Scrolls Online: Huh. I guess they haven’t shut the game down yet. Good for them, I guess.
Fallout 4: Mixed reactions. YES you can be a woman. (Yay!) YES your protagonist is voiced. (Probably not going to be great.) YES it will be a “hunt down the people who killed your family”. (Yawn.) YES the interface is even more atrocious than before. (Sigh.) Some parts look stupid. (World-building.) Some parts look intriguing (crafting, base-building) and some parts are still up in the air. (Game feel.) Release in November. Fingers crossed.
Last time we talked about how the writers completely misinterpreted and subsequently bungled the themes and tone of the Fallout universe. Now let’s get into the brokenness of the Fallout 3 setting. Last time they just made things really hard for themselves, but this is where the plot of the game melted into radioactive nonsense.
Let’s start with my favorite question…
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “The Blistering Stupidity of Fallout 3, Part 2”
People were so worried about the boring gameplay of The Old Republic they overlooked just how boring and amateur the art is.
I called 2018 "The Year of Good News". Here is a list of the games I thought were interesting or worth talking about that year.
This version of Silver Sable is poorly designed, horribly written, and placed in the game for all the wrong reasons.
His problem isn't that he's dumb, the problem is that he bends the world he inhabits.
An interesting but technically dense talk about gaming technology. I translate it for the non-coders.
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2016.
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2014.
It's not a legend. It was real. There was a time before DLC. Before DRM. Before crappy ports. It was glorious.
You know how videogames sometimes do that thing where it's preposterously hard to go through a simple door? This one is really bad.
What's wrong with a game being "too videogameish"?
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