Twenty Sided

By Rutskarn Posted Friday Dec 14, 2012

Hi, everyone, I’m Shamu. Did you know that games have been getting consistently better over the years? As I was saying to my best pal, Bobby Kotick

Oh. Shamus finally added those avatars, huh? I had another twenty pages where I explain why Medal of Honor: Warfighter was GotY 2012, but I guess I’ll just get to the point.

Remember Aunty Paladin? You probably do, since most of you were around last year, hecklin’ on us, watching us play roleplaying games, participating in crowd activities, and generally havin’ a blast. But for those of you who didn’t make it, let me sum up.

Every year, the RPG association I’m president of does a 24-hour Livestreamed RPG marathon for as long as you guys pay us to. Damn fine people play damn fine games from sunrise to sunset with only the comment stream to keep us company. All the proceeds go to Child’s Play, and we’ve hooked it up so you can send your donations simply and directly this year. Frankly, I’m jazzed.

The official schedule will be posted soon, so keep an eye out for that, but here’s some of the glory you can expect:

We’re kicking off with a game of Hobospy, the dark comedy RPG designed and produced by yours truly
A game of Paranoia run by me, the master of mindscrewery!
Can five players survive Tomb of Horrors? Almost certainly not!
An exclusive, officially sanctioned live beta test of Evil Hat’s awesome magnum opus, Fate Core!
Can Rutskarn and company stand that bad sci-fi novel come to life, Immortal? The number of walls I punched trying to figure out the first chapter is a nonzero number.
Audience-participation game of Fiasco, which I’ve unofficially dubbed the Coen Brothers RPG.
The return of your favorite cast members, like Wolfnord, Kiltbeard, Troy, Sam, Arturo the Bear, and many more!

Seriously, folks, this oughtta be great. As long as we’re funded, we’ll be rolling until midnight Friday. Spread the word–this isn’t just a great opportunity to help kids and have fun, it’s a great way to show people a.) what roleplaying games are, and b.) that they’re a riot to play. Ever try to describe what an RPG is like to someone who’s never seen one before? Trust me, this is easier.

See you all there!

Oh yeah, we’ve got an embedded stream now. So there’s that.

Rutskarn is a writer, author, wordsmith, text producer, article deviser, prose architect, and accredited language-talker. If you enjoy his contributions to this site you could always back his Patreon.

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Mass Effect EP18: Bow Chicka Wow Wow

By Shamus Posted Friday Dec 14, 2012

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 86 comments

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Link (YouTube)

Warning: This episode contains Mass Effect's infamous XXX hard core pornographic sex simulation*. Viewers strongly cautioned.

* And by “pornography” we mean, “a fleeting side view of a bare female bottom”.

This whole sex scene feels like a thirteen year old trying to seem adult by cussing and spitting on the ground. Look at me! I’m a mature medium with adult themes! I have sexytime scenes just like in the movies. TAKE ME SERIOUSLY!

And as bad as this is, Dragon Age was even worse. The clothed sex scenes were funny, awkward, and embarrassing.

I think Randy’s suggestion about being able to break down doors is actually an interesting idea. Not in a “all games should do this” kind of way, but more like, “What would happen if this was an option?”

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Mass Effect EP18: Bow Chicka Wow Wow”

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.

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Random Notes on Far Cry 3: Part 2

By Chris Posted Thursday Dec 13, 2012

Filed under: Game Reviews 47 comments

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Link (YouTube)

So last time I spent most of the article whining that Far Cry 3 wasn’t Far Cry 2. And while that’s true, it’s not like the game is without merit. So I figured I’d spend part of this miniseries talking about what the game does well. To that end, I’ve attached the gameplay video above. What I love about this clip is that it’s 100% genuine – this wasn’t me setting up a planned event; this wasn’t take 43 of a series of attacks on this same base; this isn’t a highly edited and cobbled together “best of” compilation. It’s just me recording the taking of one random outpost (and a few humorous bits shortly thereafter).

And yet, aside from its stop-and-go pacing, it feels a bit like a promo video, doesn’t it? It highlights a variety of weapons and deployables, shows off unpredictable animal AI and the fact that enemy AI will call for reinforcements, and demonstrates several of the “we’re sticking to the first person perspective” tricks like the roll out of the car… it feels like a trailer trying to show off features. It’s a testament to the utility of the tools they’ve provided the player – every one of them useful in some capacity, and every one of them is interesting in some capacity.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Random Notes on Far Cry 3: Part 2”

Chris Franklin

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Mass Effect EP17: Kilotons for Kaiden

By Shamus Posted Thursday Dec 13, 2012

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 59 comments

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See, this is another classic example of how BioWare didn’t plan ahead. In this part of the game we clearly KILLED KAIDEN IN A NUCLEAR EXPLOSION, and yet in the first five minutes of the next game they retcon the whole thing and have him alive again with no explanation. This failure to plan is why the whole thing is such a-

Oh. Right. That was Josh’s fault because he brought Kaiden back to life using a save editor. Um. Yeah. Still, the point stands that Kaiden totally had it coming.

We’re nearing the end of the Mass Effect re-watch. After this we’ll begin reposting the Fallout 3 episodes. I’m really looking forward to that. I haven’t seen those eps since they first aired, and I suspect I’ve forgotten a lot of them.

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.

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Ok Cancel

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Dec 12, 2012

Filed under: Programming 160 comments

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Microsoft’s operating system has many advantages, but “beauty and grace” are not among them. Gates figured out early that compatibility and ubiquity trumped looks, grace, security, stability and efficiency, which made him a billionaire. I complain about it, but he’s a billionaire and I’m using Windows, so… hm.

I understand that Microsoft does not have a company culture that fosters a lot of ease-of-use minded development. And that’s fine, I guess. I don’t expect high class at Wal-Mart, I don’t expect heartfelt and bittersweet indie Gen-Y character studies from Lucasfilm, and I don’t demand photorealistic graphics from Telltale Games. Companies all have their strengths and weaknesses, and they usually do well to stick with what they know rather than mimicking what their differently-designed competitors might be doing.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Ok Cancel”

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.

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Mass Effect EP16: Ham and Squid

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Dec 12, 2012

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 30 comments

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Link (YouTube)

Episode 16, wherein we forget to turn off the push-to-talk sound and thus have an entire episode punctuated with bip-bup noises. We fail at Spoiler Warning-ing.

Kirrahe is definitely the go-to guy for line-holding. If you have a line that you need firmly held, put Kirrahe on it. He’ll hold that line so hard you’ll forget what it looked like before he began holding it.

It’s kind of interesting how much dead air we have in these episodes. These days we struggle to keep from talking over each other, but back in 2010 we were content to let a couple of minutes of gameplay roll by without saying anything.

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.

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Random Notes on Far Cry 3: Part 1

By Chris Posted Tuesday Dec 11, 2012

Filed under: Game Reviews 120 comments

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Due to a number of circumstances beyond our control – Shamus' sleep schedule, Rutskarn's finals week, an unexpected death in my family, and Josh's sudden arraignment for an arson somewhere in Canada* – there will be no new Spoiler Warning this week. In an attempt to fill the gap, however, Shamus has graciously granted me permission to give you a bunch of words that will, with any luck, prove an adequate substitute for the pictures and noises normally posted in this space. And being both creatively bankrupt and hording my best material for myself, I figured I’d fulfill this honor by doing the most lazy thing possible: I’d write about the video game I’ve been playing most recently. With all of that house cleaning out of the way: Let’s talk about Far Cry 3.