 |
One hundred and twenty-five hours. That’s how much Saints Row the Third I’ve played. I haven’t stuck with a single game like this since Skyrim. In fact, I turned up the difficulty. I can’t remember the last time I liked a game enough to play it on the higher difficulty levels.
Let’s wrap up the series with a few random observations about the game.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Saints Row The Third: Part 3”
The subject of “gameification” has really taken off over the last year. I think Extra Credits really kicked off the discussion. They didn’t invent the term, but it does seem like they brought it to the masses. We’re now several spins through the whole cycle of evangelism » backlash » counter-backlash » re-framing the discussion. At PAX East this year there was even a panel titled, “If I Hear the Term ‘Gamification’ One More Time I’m Going To Scream”.
But until now the criticism has mostly fallen into one of two categories:
I think Errant Signal is the first place I’ve seen the more academic and informed view packaged up for mass consumption:
Link (YouTube) |
I’ll be the first to admit that gameification is not a new subject. In fact, according to my own definition school grades are basically a technique to game-ify learning, and I have not been kind to those ideas in the past. In fact, the whole “intrinsic / extrinsic” motivation he talks about at the end is a perfect description of why I never cared about grades or school and held the whole thing in such contempt.
Despite this, I wanted to take issue with the idea of gamification being bad. Or at least, it’s probably an improvement on what marketing has given us in the past. So that’s what my column is about this week.
Due to a misunderstanding it’s running on Tuesday instead of Friday, but there it is.
|
I’ll repeat my earlier warning: Spoilers ahead. I mean, this game is really, really obvious and I sort of balk at the notion that any of this could spoil the game for you. Don’t get me wrong, Stuff Happens in this game, and People Die, but it’s all played for lulz and I don’t think the plot is the driving force here. But fair warning: Stuff will be spoiled.
In fact, we’re going to start with the biggest spoiler of all, which happens in the first 15 minutes of the game…
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Saints Row The Third: Part 2”
When I do the “ask me a question” things, I generally stick to questions I can actually answer. But in this case I think what the curious person is looking for is a rough overview, not a detailed white paper. This being the case, I think I can help. As always, remember that my understanding is probably a few years out of date.
Reader Kronski asks:
I don't know if you've seen this video.
It's demonstration of a physics engine where a truck gets banged up all to hell. My question is, how does a physics engine like this work?
So you don’t have to head over to YouTube, the video in question is this one:
Link (YouTube) |
The basics of a physics engine are easy to grasp. The finer details are beyond me. Let’s start with the essentials. You can see the ultimate demonstration of basic physics at work in the bridge builder game.
The idea is pretty simple: It’s a simulation of points in space. You have a bunch of points and you subject them to gravity and collision. The trick is that you link the points together. Let me swipe a screen shot from the bridge game:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Physics Engine”
Link (YouTube) |
As I said in the ending credits, I think Alan Wake had all the ingredients to make a much stronger game, and most of the major systemic flaws were a result of a few key mistakes. Here is what I’d do to re-edit the game:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Alan Wake EP26: The End”
|
Like I said, Saints Row The Third is really great, but not perfect. So let’s talk about the bad parts, the odd parts, and the stuff that was left out. I had originally titled this series “Saints Row Nitpicks”, but as I wrote it grew from an enumeration of shortcomings to a more general discussion of the game and the genre it inhabits.
For the record, I didn’t play the first Saints Row game. I know nothing about it, except that it was notoriously buggy. For me the series began at Saints Row 2. I’ve played through the third installment once now, and I’m currently working on a semi-completionist second run.
You may notice that the player character is different in some of these screenshots. I tend to re-invent my character every couple of hours, changing my gender, race, voice, outfit, etc. (You can change all of this at any time. The character builder is just another store in the game. Going from a tiny female waif to a burly bearded muscleman is no different than buying a new shirt.) It’s a bit schizophrenic, but I like hearing all the different versions of the main character’s voice. And if you promise not to tell anyone, I’ll admit that I enjoy playing dress-up with my avatar.
A final warning: Spoilers ahead. I mean, this game is really, really obvious and I sort of balk at the notion that any of this could spoil the game for you, but I understand it’s considered rude not to give fair warning.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Saints Row The Third: Part 1”
Link (YouTube) |
Yes, the show is turning into a podcast with accompanying unrelated videogame footage. We just don’t have a lot left to say about Alan Wake. There’s about 40 minutes of footage left. I don’t know if Josh will break that into one episode or two. Either way, we’ll be wrapping things up this week.
We discussed The Stanley Parable in this episode. It’s a source mod game. You can get it for free here.
Here are 6 reasons why I forbid political discussions on this site. #4 will amaze you. Or not.
A long-form analysis on one of the greatest horror games ever made.
Sometimes software is engineered. Sometimes it grows organically. And sometimes it's thrown together seemingly at random over two decades.
His problem isn't that he's dumb, the problem is that he bends the world he inhabits.
This is a horrible narrative that undermines the hobby through crass stereotypes. The hobby is vast, gamers come from all walks of life, and you shouldn't judge ANY group by its worst members.
You know how videogames sometimes do that thing where it's preposterously hard to go through a simple door? This one is really bad.
It's not a good movie, but it was made with good intentions and if you look closely you can find a few interesting ideas.
I called 2019 "The Year of corporate Dystopia". Here is a list of the games I thought were interesting or worth talking about that year.
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2015.
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.
T w e n t y S i d e d
