Twenty Sided

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Jun 10, 2015

Filed under: Retrospectives 155 comments

 Fable 2 Part 4: The Goldun Riter!Previous Post

Next PostThe Blistering Stupidity of Fallout 3, Part 2 

This is going to be a ~7,000 word series on someBecause listing ALL the things wrong with it would take 200 years. of the things wrong with the central story of Fallout 3. Yes, I know this is a celebrated and beloved game. It made a bunch of GOTY lists back in 2008, and still appears on lists of favorites today. To be honest, I liked it too. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to pretend that the entire story wasn’t a giant heap of sophomoric tripe. None of it fit together, none of it made sense, and it was filled with awful, frustrating situations where you were forced to do stupid things because doing something smart would resolve the problem without requiring the player to go out and shoot things.

If you’re one of those people that can’t stand to hear people say bad things about stuff you like, then this is going to be hard for you. I’ve broken the series into five parts to help soften the blow.

Good luck!

(Yes, I covered a lot of these points way back in 2010 when we covered Fallout 3 on Spoiler Warning. But I wanted a version of this rant that people could take in without needing to sit through 15 hours of 480p video.)

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “The Blistering Stupidity of Fallout 3, Part 1”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Fable 2 Part 4: The Goldun Riter!Previous Post

Next PostThe Blistering Stupidity of Fallout 3, Part 2 

155 comments

Hangout: Geralt of Rivia and the Wendy’s Spicy Chicken Sandwich

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Jun 9, 2015

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 36 comments

 Hangout: Killing FloorPrevious Post

Next PostArkham Asylum EP1: Satan Clown Rodeo 

Link (YouTube)

Supposedly you can beat Witcher 3 in 25 hours if you only play the main quest and skip every cutscene. My play-through took around 80 hours and barely scratched the surface of the side content. I suppose the best-case for a proper play-through would be in the neighborhood of 50 hoursNaturally a first-time player spends some time getting lost, not taking the best shortcuts, hunting for things, taking on needless extra tasks, etc.. Since Spoiler Warning covers about an hour of gameplay a week, this means it would take us an entire year just to do a “quick” play-through of the game that barely skims the surface.

So enjoy this hangout, as it’s probably the closest we’ll get to a Witcher 3 season. I’m sorry I missed it. I’d love to have discussed the game, assuming I could get a word in between people prostituting themselves for the Wendy’s sandwich menu.

We’ve said before that we’d like to do hangouts monthly. I think making a policy of doing them at the top of the month is a good idea. Also, I think we should give Witcher 3 another shot next month, assuming Josh is up for it.

I just finished my play-through of the game. I think the main plot is overlong, and the layers of ancillary quests are a little too deep, but I was really happy with the ending.

Also! Brace yourselves: Tomorrow we begin the next Season of Spoiler Warning. If you’re just coming off the Hitman Absolution episodes, this will probably cause some whiplash.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Hangout: Killing FloorPrevious Post

Next PostArkham Asylum EP1: Satan Clown Rodeo 

36 comments

Experienced Points: Witcher 3 – Size Matters

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Jun 9, 2015

Filed under: Column 74 comments

 Experienced Points: The HairWorks Debacle ExplainedPrevious Post

Next PostExperienced Points: In Defense of Reboots 

My column this week is about how our usual metrics for the size of a game (hours and square area) are inadequate for describing the size and complexity of Witcher 3.

I wrote that column on Sunday. At the time, I’d just completed a massive siege at a castle, which was kind of like the suicide mission from Mass Effect 2. All the main characters were there, the bad guys were there, and everyone had gone all-in. The list of resources available to me was shaped by decisions I’d made over the last sixty hours of gameplay. The battle was a long, complex, multi-stage thing that kind of had a Helm’s Deep vibe. It was the perfect ending to a long and complex drama.

And then the game kept going. And going. And going. Days later, it’s still going.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Experienced Points: Witcher 3 – Size Matters”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Experienced Points: The HairWorks Debacle ExplainedPrevious Post

Next PostExperienced Points: In Defense of Reboots 

74 comments

Hangout: Killing Floor

By Shamus Posted Monday Jun 8, 2015

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 30 comments

 Top 10 Spoiler WarningPrevious Post

Next PostHangout: Geralt of Rivia and the Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwich 

Here is the footage from the hangout we did three days ago. I guess we can consider this the finale to zombie month. We were hoping to cover Dead Rising 2, but that didn’t work out. Later this week we begin our coverage of Arkham Asylum. Are you excited? I’m excited.

Link (YouTube)

Later in the week I’ll post the second half of this hangout, where Josh plays Witcher 3.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Top 10 Spoiler WarningPrevious Post

Next PostHangout: Geralt of Rivia and the Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwich 

30 comments

Diecast #107: Fallout, Splatoon, Life is Strange

By Shamus Posted Monday Jun 8, 2015

Filed under: Diecast 142 comments

 Diecast #106: Witcher 3, Kickstarter, Guy FieriPrevious Post

Next PostDiecast #108: Jurassic World, Town of Salem, Steam Summer Sale 

The good news: I have glorious new audio equipment. It’s super nice. I have a great microphone and even a boom arm. The bad news: I really needed to test it out before we recorded this. I just adjusted things so they sounded fine in my headphones, without testing to see what was actually being picked up by the equipment. The result is I was too close to the mic and it sounds like I’m talking into a pillow. Then sometimes I lean in too close to the mic and it sounds even worse.

So:

Shamus + improved equipment + stunning ineptitude - due diligence = massive downgrade in audio quality.

I should have tested. Kicking myself now. Enjoy the creepy feeling of being trapped in the trunk of a car with my voice.

I promise it’ll be better next week, or I’ll make Josh eat a bug.

Download MP3 File
Download Ogg Vorbis File

Hosts: Shamus, Campster, Josh, Mumbles, and Rutskarn.

Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #107: Fallout, Splatoon, Life is Strange”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Diecast #106: Witcher 3, Kickstarter, Guy FieriPrevious Post

Next PostDiecast #108: Jurassic World, Town of Salem, Steam Summer Sale 

142 comments

Witcher 3: Get Dandelion

By Shamus Posted Sunday Jun 7, 2015

Filed under: Game Reviews 119 comments

 Witcher 3: First ImpressionsPrevious Post

Next PostReview: Chime Sharp 

Witcher 3 is really good. At this point, it’s my Game of the Year. Actually, it’s my “Game of the Last Several Years”. I’ve spent the last week having these little moments where I put the controller down and say, “Wow. This game is really amazing.” The reasons why I like it so much can wait for another post. What I want to talk about is the bit last week when I rage-quit, then came back a few days later, rage-quit again, and then loudly and publicly quit the game via Twitter.

The full tale looks like this:

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Witcher 3: Get Dandelion”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Witcher 3: First ImpressionsPrevious Post

Next PostReview: Chime Sharp 

119 comments

Hangout June 5

By Josh Posted Thursday Jun 4, 2015

Filed under: Notices 73 comments

 Also By The AuthorPrevious Post

Next PostHangout: Bethesda Press Conference 

So there I was, Tuesday morning, chatting with Shamus. And he was bemoaning the fact that without any Spoiler Warning recorded, the content on the blog this week would be sparse and he would have to spend more time this week being Rich Successful Internet Personality-Man and less time being Awesome Cool Legit Indie Game Developer-Man. So I said to him, “Well, hey, why don’t we do a hangout? It’ll be easy, free content to fill out a few days on the blog and, hell, they probably wouldn’t even notice if you didn’t show up.” He liked this idea, so I went about planning it.

And then Shamus started writing about Fallout 3 again, and oh dear god what are you even–

Uh, right, so there’s going to be a hangout tomorrow, at 4 PM Pacific. Same twitch channel as always. We’ll probably be playing Killing Floor 2, or something.

When the stream is live, you’ll find it here: www.twitch.tv/spoilerwarningshow.

Josh Viel is the primary editor and producer of the Spoiler Warning video series. You can support the show by backing the Patreon.