It’s that time of the year when we count our blessings and overeat. But not in that order. And maybe more the second thing than the first. And then we go shopping.
In any case, I’ve compiled a list of everything I’m thankful for:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Happy Thanksgiving!”
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For the uneducated philistines in the audience, this episode title is actually a highbrow literary reference.
So this might be the most positive season of Spoiler Warning so far. Really we just have a couple of gripes that get brought up again and again. Like the raiders. Speaking of which:
Let’s look at this encounter from the raider’s perspective: How stupid are these guys? They’re searching a building with a conspicuous flashlight when you clearly don’t need oneAnd now that I mention that, where DID Mr. Light-Gun go after that first shot?. Then they take a potshot at someone in a dark room, on another floor, through a dirty window. Unless they’ve been following youIn which case setting up an ambush would have made more sense. they have no idea how many people are in your group or if you have any supplies worth dying for. A group of people this stupid should not have survived this long.
And that’s not even getting into the hilarity of guys running out in front of allies with guns so they can fight your flamethrower with their axe. Dumb stuff like this really sticks out when the rest of the world is so smart and grounded.
Just once I’d like to see these guys act like human beings. Maybe they shout at you to drop your food and bullets and they promise to let you go. (“Like hell,” Joel mumbles under his breath.) Maybe they shout some stuff to each other to make it sound like they have a plan or goal. (“How many are there?” says one. “Looks like just two,” says another.) Just… something. These guys aren’t any better than the idiotic raiders of Fallout 3: Mindless murderbots who only exist for the sake of having some man-shoots.
I think it would actually make more sense logically and thematically to replace these raiders with zombies. They already have an in-world excuse for why there would be zombies hereBecause the fireflies are stupid and dumb..
But still, this game is quite an achievement. The story is solid. The gameplay is solidOr so people keep telling me.. The only problem is the ugly patchwork seam between the two.
My column this week is about the multiplayer aspect of Dragon Age: Inquisition. Also, allow me to head off some nitpicking and address something that didn’t fit into this column. (The satirical “Advice of Screwtape” style kind of boxes you in sometimes.)
In the column I claimed that people weren’t asking for multiplayer in Dragon Age. I’m sure that in reality there are lots of people who found themselves thinking, “Man, I wish I could play this with my friends.” However, this is nothing like what we were given. What you probably want is an intimate and mechanically interesting experience with one or two friends. What you get is a shitty grindfest with rando internet strangers. (Unless you and three friends available at the same time on the same platform.) To be fair, some people really do like that. But that’s not what people had in mind when they dreamed of playing Dragon Age co-op.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Experienced Points: Dragon Age: Impositions”
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Hosts: Rutskarn, Josh, Shamus, Chris and Mumbles.
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Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #82: Dragon Age: Inquisition, Far Cry 4”
In the Unrest postmortem, someone kicked off a discussion about cost-of-living and the advantages of living outside of the USA. As someone who has worked from home for most of his professional life, this is something I’ve thought about a great deal.
Back in the dot-com days – before the bubble burst – the entire idea of Silicon Valley drove me crazy. Great, tech jobs are plentiful and pay is astronomical, but the cost of living is equally astronomical, everything is crowded, and your commute is likely going to be murder. I can understand why a person might dare to live there, but I could never fathom why a company would choose to live there. The cost of doing business is sky-high, real estate is high, labor costs are SUPER high, and California is notoriously difficult and expensive with regards to regulations and taxesThe linked site is the first search result. I’m not endorsing it politically. Even if you think California “isn’t that bad”, the people who usually run companies DO think it’s bad.. Why not locate somewhere nice but cheap, and simply pay relocation costs? Assuming you’re a small company (say, a dozen employees) you could easily move to some nice but affordable little suburb and make back those relocation costs with lower overall costs of doing business. (Or, you know, start a new company in one of those places.)
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Another Part of the World…”
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I want you to imagine crossing Colorado on horseback. Now imagine a situation where you have to go THROUGH a building and can’t go around it. I can’t accept it. That’s Loony Tunes. I mean, other people cross the country, right? This university isn’t the sole choke point between east and west. Having Joel and Ellie run out of food or water and forcing them to scavenge would have made for a FAR better excuse for this than having them enter a zombie den and be unwilling to go around.
And while I’m re-writing the game, here is how I would have handled the raider fight in the last episode:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “The Last of Us EP24: Not The Monkeys!”
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I just want to say that I think our team has devised the best Agent 47 fanfiction to date. I’m so happy we could achieve this together.
Like I said in the episode, these “bandits” in the woods are a lot less objectionable than the ones in Pittsburgh, or the ones that assaulted the power plant last episode. It’s a small-ish group of guys and we’re (possibly) invading their territory. The group is small enough and mobile enough that they could plausibly forage for a living.
Imagine if the original Star Wars hadn't appeared in the 1970's, but instead was pitched to studios in 2006. How would that turn out?
Here are 6 reasons why I forbid political discussions on this site. #4 will amaze you. Or not.
I was trying to make fun of how Silent Hill had lost its way but I ended up making fun of fighting games. Whatever.
Let's ruin everyone's fun by listing all the ways in which zombies can't work, couldn't happen, and don't make sense.
I scoured the Steam database to figure out what words were the most commonly used in game titles.
A programming project where I set out to make a gigantic and complex world from simple data.
There's a wonderful way to balance difficulty in RPGs, and designers try to prevent it. For some reason.
A music lesson for people who know nothing about music, from someone who barely knows anything about music.
This series explores the troubled history of VR and the strange lawsuit between Zenimax publishing and Facebook.
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.
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