T w e n t y S i d e d
Link (YouTube) |
You know what I want? I want the book Metro 2033 is based on, in audiobook format, as read by Rutskarn doing his “Russian” accent. I would pay many rubles for such a treasure.
Comment Threading Broken
It’s kind of annoying to get the same notification in six different posts, on twitter, and in email. So as a catch-all: Yes, comment threading is broken. Sort of. Sometimes. In some cases.
I can’t reply to certain threads in the most recent Spoiler Warning post. But others I can. It’s not based on user, or time, or comment depth. It’s not caused by any of the most likely plugins. I haven’t made any changes to the site on ages.
I put this post here to run some tests and to act as a general “OUT OF ORDER” sign on the site. I’m working on it.
Current status: Baffled and annoyed.
EDIT: Boom! Problem solved.
Okay, how WordPress handles threaded comments is a little unexpected. Let’s say we’ve got a comment thread like this:
- I am hungry. – Alan
- Me too, I could really go for a hamburger. – Barbara
- Ugh. No thinks. I’m a vegetarian. – Carl
- That’s so sweet! I love animals! – Denise
- I never said I was sharing my hamburger with anyone. :) – Barbara
- Man, that sounds good! – Alan
- Ugh. No thinks. I’m a vegetarian. – Carl
- There is never a wrong time for pizza. – Earl
- Me too, I could really go for a hamburger. – Barbara
- Man, writing this example thread has made me hungry. – Shamus
If I delete the root comment, or even if Alan makes a change to his original comment that gets it shoved into moderation, then WordPress FREAKS OUT and abandons all attempts at threading:
- Me too, I could really go for a hamburger. – Barbara
- Ugh. No thinks. I’m a vegetarian. – Carl
- That’s so sweet! I love animals! – Denise
- I never said I was sharing my hamburger with anyone. :) – Barbara
- Man, that sounds good! – Alan
- There is never a wrong time for pizza. – Earl
- Man, writing this example thread has made me hungry. – Shamus
All future replies to ANY of these comments will appear at the top level. Basically, none of these comments can ever appear in any thread ever again unless the original comment from Alan is restored.
So… that was odd.
Anyway. Problem solved. Let’s move on.
Metro 2033 EP1: Ranger Hardcore
Link (YouTube) |
The people have spoken, and the people said they wanted some other game. So we ignored them and we’re giving you this.
I kid. This was actually one of the most requested games. I wasn’t kidding when I said this game won out over Max Payne 3. I find this interesting, since Max Payne looms large in terms the impression its marketing campaign left on me. But today’s hyped-up cultural event is the game everyone is kinda “meh” about a year later, and sometimes low-profile titles become beloved classics. I think time has a way of washing away the bullshit of marketing and review scores to show the real worth of a game.
Having said that? I’m not a huge fan of this game yet. I admire it from a storytelling / worldbuilding perspective, but I never really enjoyed the mechanics. I spent a lot of time wishing the game was more Fallout-ish, having more looting and exploring. (Which is interesting, since Fallout 3 could stand to take a few hints from this game when it comes to everything else.)
And Chris is right: “Ranger Hardcore” totally sounds like a pornstar.
Project Good Robot 22: Text Files
No pretty screenshots for you today, just walls of text and some confused ramblings. I’m a little out of sorts and not really in any mental shape to be accomplishing interesting things.
I’m feeling a bit un-creative and run down today. So I want to get away from the stuff that requires a lot of creativity (gameplay, writing, art) and just work on something straightforward and mechanical. I’m trying to make sure I do something on the project every day, but it’s probably a bad idea to do anything tricky while I’m all muddle-brained. I check out my miles-long to-do list and find something really dull: reading ini files.
You know ini files. Stuff like this:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Project Good Robot 22: Text Files”
Diecast #33: Crusader King Modding, Haunted Houses, and Elder Scrolls
We open today’s show with a secret topic that I will not reveal. The only hint I’ll give you is that it’s about a certain perpetually broken and tragically mismanaged game that has appeared on the show many times in the past, was published by EA, and features the simulation of a city based on a game concept by Will Wright. See if you can unravel that riddle, Batman.
If you can’t figure it out in the space of five minutes, the answer is: Shame on you.
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Hosts: Rutskarn, Josh, Chris, and Shamus.
Show notes:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #33: Crusader King Modding, Haunted Houses, and Elder Scrolls”
Project Good Robot 21: Resource Usage
You know what the hardest feature of this game was so far? Fullscreen mode. Well, not so much fullscreen as the ability to allow the user to change the window size, which crops up most often when toggling fullscreen mode. I don’t think it was the most time consuming feature, but it was certainly the most effort for the most mundane and uninteresting payoff.
It’s not something you can skip, really. I’m long past the point where I’ll put up with a game that wants to restart because you changed the resolution. We’re all accustomed to being able to smack alt-enter to toggle fullscreen or to resize a window by dragging. It’s just part of making civilized software and not something a developer can leave out. On the other hand, it’s infuriatingly difficult and troublesome and adds all kinds of unwelcome complexity to systems that would otherwise be graceful and elementally simple.
Ever wonder why some old games (and a few modern ones) won’t change the resolution until you restart the program? I’ll tell you.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Project Good Robot 21: Resource Usage”
Diecast #32: Steam Machines, Permadeath in Far Cry 2
I was worried about recording an episode on Saturday to release on Thursday. A lot can happen in the course of five days, and some bit of news might come along to make our discussion irrelevant. Then I remembered that we’re talking about Valve, and Valve only makes non-hat announcements on odd-numbered years. So maybe in 2017 we can have Diecast #230: Valve has released a photograph showing the first Steam Machines will be orange. Still no release date. Still no Half-Life 3.
Hosts: Rutskarn, Josh, Mumbles, and Shamus.
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Show notes:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #32: Steam Machines, Permadeath in Far Cry 2”
From The Archives:
Punishing The Internet for Sharing
Why make millions on your video game when you could be making HUNDREDS on frivolous copyright claims?
Do It Again, Stupid
One of the highest-rated games of all time has some of the least interesting gameplay.
The Truth About Piracy
What are publishers doing to fight piracy and why is it all wrong?
This Scene Breaks a Character
Small changes to the animations can have a huge impact on how the audience interprets a scene.
Starcraft 2: Rush Analysis
I write a program to simulate different strategies in Starcraft 2, to see how they compare.
Why I Hated Resident Evil 4
Ever wonder how seemingly sane people can hate popular games? It can happen!
Tenpenny Tower
Bethesda felt the need to jam a morality system into Fallout 3, and they blew it. Good and evil make no sense and the moral compass points sideways.
Linux vs. Windows
Finally, the age-old debate has been settled.
Stop Asking Me to Play Dark Souls!
An unhinged rant where I maybe slightly over-reacted to the water torture of Souls evangelism.
Project Octant
A programming project where I set out to make a Minecraft-style world so I can experiment with Octree data.