T w e n t y S i d e d
Link (YouTube) |
I don’t have a lot to say here that we don’t say three times in the video. It really is a shame this game never got another shot.
Mass Effect Retrospective 9: Paragade
While Virmire doesn’t feature the worst use of the in-game morality meter / conversation metagame / roleplaying tool, it does have the moment that – for me – perfectly crystallized how silly the system can be at times. So let’s talk about…
Paragade
I've killed thousands of people, but I wasn't RUDE to any of them, so I can't intimidate this guy.
It’s obvious that BioWare never totally nailed down the whole Paragon / Renegade system and what it was supposed to mean. Good vs. evil? Idealistic vs. practical? Merciful vs. Ruthless? Cunning vs. brutal? Doormat vs. leader? Sensible vs. sociopathic moron? You can find examples of all of these in the game.
I understand that BioWare felt like they needed to have this. It’s been a staple of the last few games and I guess fans have come to expect it. KOTOR had it because the game played around with the light and dark sides of the force. Then it was turned into the open palm / closed fist, which was an admirable idea that kind of turned into a philosophical mess in practice. So they tried again here in Mass Effect with paragon vs. renegade.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Mass Effect Retrospective 9: Paragade”
Sporeler Warning: Everything Chris Says In This Episode Is About Sex
Link (YouTube) |
- The game Will Wright envisioned.
- The game Wright pitched to the publisher.
- The game the team wanted to make.
- The game they hinted at in the GDC demo.
- The game we thought they were making.
- The game they were able to make.
- The game EA marketed.
- The game we actually got.
This game isn’t very good at all, but I feel strongly that it deserves another chance. There’s a good game in here somewhere.
Experienced Points: Square Enix and the Hitman Ripoff
My column is about how Square Enix is selling the next Hitman game as “Not episodic, but still released in many pieces” and why this is a ripoff.
Also, it’s worth comparing Square Enix with CD Projekt RED and Paradox. Square asks for full price up front, and in return they offer part of a game and a pinky promise that they will finish the rest of it later. CD Projekt asks for full price, and in return they offer a massive game, a complete experience. And then they release free updates and content for months afterward. And if that’s not enough content for you, they also release DLC. Paradox does the same thing.
This is on top of the fact that a Hitman game probably offers far fewer hours of content than either Witcher or (say) Cities Skylines. (Although I’m sure Campster would chastise me for boiling a game down to its playtime, and I concede it’s a terrible metric for measuring value.)
Diecast #117: Mailbag, Text Plays, Licensed Games
Hosts: Josh, Shamus, Joshua, Campster, Josh Viel, Rutskarn, and Cuftburt. Episode edited by Rachel.
Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #117: Mailbag, Text Plays, Licensed Games”
Rutskarn’s RPG Tales: Paranoia (Full Session Recording)
Hey, everyone, it’s Rutskarn. I don’t know if you’ve been keeping up with your farmer’s almanac, but the Time of Terror and Blood was recently upon us, and the Great Beast you know as Josh was briefly trapped inside the Southern California ley line. I took advantage of his psychic imprisonment to schedule an ad hoc game of Paranoia. Unfortunately for you, I recorded it.
Also starring: Josh’s brother Glitch, Glitch’s fiancee Madison.
Keep in mind that this session was planned, run, recorded, and in some capacity edited on the fly. I didn’t even know we’d be playing Paranoia when I arrived (I brought a suitcase and flash drive that contained about fifteen separate systems and let them decide). Despite that, we had a lot of fun, and hopefully you will too. I’ve cleaned the audio as best as I could and trimmed a few breaks, but I’ll warn you up front–it’s far from perfect. The Hellish winds that follow Josh like ashen cherubs have that effect on a recording suite.
(Note also that anyone who illustrates anything that happened in this session will earn my undying love.)
And below the fold, all notes and secret information that passed this session:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Rutskarn’s RPG Tales: Paranoia (Full Session Recording)”
Spooky’s House of Jump Scares Episode 2: The Exciting Episode That Goes To Dark Places
Link (YouTube) |
That joking around we were doing about how Silent Hills was going to be turned into a pachinko machine? Yeah. That wasn’t joking around. That’s a real thing that Konami is doing.
I know I make a big fuss over Silent Hill 2 and how developers keep getting it wrong, but the truth is I’m not really a Silent Hill fan as much as a fan of the concepts and tone. I wouldn’t want to play a knock-off Batman game with some generic faux-Batman lead. But Silent Hill? I don’t care about the name. I’m here for the dread, the art style, the psychological games, the twisted monsters, somber quiet moments, the sense of mystery and the focus on exploration over combat.
Amnesia is the closest thing we have now. That’s nice and all, but I really wish someone else would pick up the Silent Hill torch and run with it.
“Spoopy” is apparently a real word now. I learned it from my teenagers. That’s something of a turning point in the life of a parent, when your kids start teaching you new words. Spooy is apparently a twee sort of spooky. Dracula is spooky. Count Chocula is spoopy.
From The Archives:
What is Vulkan?
There's a new graphics API in town. What does that mean, and why do we need it?
PC Gaming Golden Age
It's not a legend. It was real. There was a time before DLC. Before DRM. Before crappy ports. It was glorious.
The Middle Ages
Would you have survived in the middle ages?
Batman: Arkham Origins
A breakdown of how this game faltered when the franchise was given to a different studio.
Starcraft: Bot Fight
Let's do some scripting to make the Starcraft AI fight itself, and see how smart it is. Or isn't.
Crysis 2
Crysis 2 has basically the same plot as Half-Life 2. So why is one a classic and the other simply obnoxious and tiresome?
The Biggest Game Ever
How did this niche racing game make a gameworld so massive, and why is that a big deal?
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.
Project Frontier
A programming project where I set out to make a gigantic and complex world from simple data.
The Mistakes DOOM Didn't Make
How did this game avoid all the usual stupidity that ruins remakes of classic titles?