Twenty Sided

By Shamus Posted Monday Jan 9, 2012

Filed under: Batman 165 comments

Reader Taliesin was nice enough to get me a copy of Batman: Arkham City. If I’d played it before the new year, it would have made my list of memorable games of 2011. Like Arkham Asylum, this is a balanced, polished experience with tons of content. The difficulty modes run the spectrum from “I’ve just arrived from the Middle Ages and have never seen a computer before” to “OMG this game is so hard I’m bleeding in real life”. It’s got a wonderfully detailed world and buffet-style gameplay.

This game has a plot twist. It’s a good one. This is hard to pull off. I mean, any writer can just execute a sudden “it was a clone / evil twin / time-travel” twist at any point if they want to. That’s not hard, but it’s basically cheating and it’s not satisfying for the audience. A good twist is one where we don’t see it coming but we can plainly see it in retrospect. This means telegraphing your twist and using misdirection to hide these clues.

Playing through the game a second time, I could see they never cheated. Okay, I’m not a hardcore Batfan and maybe there are cues I’m missing, but from my casual familiarity with the lore, it was telegraphed fair and square. Nicely done. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a plot twist like this since Jade Empire or KOTOR. There’s no way around it. If you want to pull this off, you need to be a good writer with a subtle touch, even when dealing with subject matter as loud and frenetic as comic book superheroes. In fact, it might be harder, because comic book fans have seen these sort of twists done again and again over the years, and can usually see them coming before you even start dropping clues. It’s hard to pull off a good con without cheating, and moreso when the guy doing the con is…

Look, there’s no way to discuss it without spoiling it. From here on, we’re going to be spoiling the game in absolute terms. I don’t have space to outline the whole plot, so if you haven’t played then you might have trouble keeping up. Here we go:

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Batman Arkham City: Joker’s Last Laugh”

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.

Next PostBatman Arkham City: Nitpicks 

165 comments

Darths & Droids Episode IV: A New Joke

By Shamus Posted Sunday Jan 8, 2012

Filed under: Nerd Culture 116 comments

 The Problem with YouTubePrevious Post

Next PostPlot Holes Part 1: Trust in the Storyteller 

It is a time of landmarks for webcomics. There are heroes on both sides. Enemies are everywhere.

Last Friday, XKCD hit 1,000 comics! In the alt-text, the comic said something to the effect of, “There are only 24 more comics until we hit a big round number”. I think like this all the time. It is rather telling that after a lifetime spent on base ten number systems, I find greater elegance, order, and symmetry in base two. (Or base sixteen.)

Heather and I enjoy collecting curious little pamphlets, cookbooks, and other bits of printed materials from the turn of the twentieth century. One artifact we’ve found is a pamphlet from a society lobbying to change our entire number system away from base ten… to base twelve. The reasoning was that twelve is divisible by both two and three, making it more useful for situations where you’re using a lot of threes. Still, base twelve sounds really screwy to my computer-coding mind.

The number two just overshadows everything else in my mind, because so many computer graphics problems involve dividing things into two. Heck, most FPS games in the 90’s used BSP technology, which stands for “binary space partitioning”, which is literally “dividing space in two”. From 3D graphics to database searches, everything seems to revolve around the number of two, so basing your number system on a power of two probably looks very appealing to a lot of programmers.

Where was I? Oh, right. Webcomics!

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Darths & Droids Episode IV: A New Joke”

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.

 The Problem with YouTubePrevious Post

Next PostPlot Holes Part 1: Trust in the Storyteller 

116 comments

Site Update

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Jan 4, 2012

Filed under: Notices 221 comments

 Saints Row The Third: New Year's Eve LivestreamPrevious Post

Next PostSite Changes 

I’m tinkering with the site today, fixing long-standing issues and annoyances. (The bug where dates would sometimes not show at the top of a post should be fixed.) If there’s something broken or odd that you’ve always wanted to see fixed, then now is the time to speak up.

Also: I’m considering, and will probably experiment with, replacing my Google ads with Project Wonderful ads to see how they hold up. From talking to other people, I gather that my site is making a lot less than other sites with similar traffic levels. If that’s because I only have one ad and I keep it away from the content, then so be it. But I want to make sure I’m not just making some obvious mistake or passing up a better deal. So, ads may come and go, or move around, or whatever. Things will settle down once I have enough data to make a decent comparison.

So, heads up, basically. Try not to freak out. Let me know if something looks really wrong.

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.

 Saints Row The Third: New Year's Eve LivestreamPrevious Post

Next PostSite Changes 

221 comments

Errant Signal: Half-Life

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Jan 3, 2012

Filed under: Video Games 353 comments

 Skyrim: The Adventures of Elfman the Man-ElfPrevious Post

Next PostThe Old Republic Forum Follies 

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, it’s probably obvious that I enjoy analyzing and discussing games at least as much as I enjoy playing them. I sing the praises of games I like as a way of spreading the joy, and I criticize games that annoy me as a kind of catharsis. I think games journalism is very much lacking in this sort of careful introspection, and I’m always glad to see someone new join the ranks.

Here is a guy who is doing this in a big way and deserves a lot more attention than what he’s getting. His analysis of Grand Theft Auto IV is the most incisive I’ve seen. You may remember I did a side-by-side review of GTA IV and Saints Row 2. I pointed out these problems, but Campster’s review gets into why they’re problems and how they are at such odds with the core gameplay. As of this writing, Campster’s GTA review has less than 2,000 views, and that’s a shame. Please do your best to remedy this.

I first discovered Campster when a reader forwarded me a link to his review of Half-Life (the series) and his position that the game is “overrated”. As an admitted Half-Life 2 fan, I think some people are hoping I’ll jump in here and defend Valve’s flagship title. My defense is probably going to be much milder than most people might imagine, but I’m willing to offer it.

Here is Campster’s take on Half-Life. My response follows.

Link (YouTube)

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Errant Signal: Half-Life”

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.

 Skyrim: The Adventures of Elfman the Man-ElfPrevious Post

Next PostThe Old Republic Forum Follies 

353 comments

The Beauty of Twentymine

By Shamus Posted Monday Jan 2, 2012

Filed under: Movies 88 comments

 New Years With The SaintsPrevious Post

Next PostPayday: The Heist 

This is a tour of things people have built on the Twentymine Minecraft Server. I know that not everyone who visits this site is here for the video content. Some of you are at work, and can’t get away with that sort of entertainment while you’re on the clock. Even if you’re one of those people, I’d encourage you to not miss this one. Turn down the speakers if you have to, but at least scan through it.

Link (YouTube)

The cathedral just before the five-minute mark is astounding to me. I suppose I’d call it the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen in Minecraft. It’s a work of careful artistry, done on a massive scale. Working on a project like this is like a three-dimensional version of 8-bit pixel art, where the artist has to work on individual pixels while still being aware of how it will all look on the macro scale. I’ve tried and failed many times to create this sort of architecture, so my appreciation might be borne of envy. I don’t know. Your mileage my vary.

Of course, there’s a lot of other impressive work going on. I know that some of this stuff was not built by hand. There are some macro tools and some copy / paste commands available to some people, although I don’t know what those are or how they work. Still, these structures are impressive no matter what tools were used to make them. A painting is not artistically diminished if the painter used advanced brushes to make the task easier. It still takes talent to put your vision on the canvas.

My own humble house makes an appearance at the seven-minute mark. I was proud of it when it was built, but it’s kind of small and embarrassing compared to the ambitious projects that others have undertaken.

Nice work to everyone who put so much work into the place. Slow clap.

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.

 New Years With The SaintsPrevious Post

Next PostPayday: The Heist 

88 comments

New Years With The Saints

By Shamus Posted Saturday Dec 31, 2011

Filed under: Movies 38 comments

 Spoiler Warning Presents: Christmas is CanceledPrevious Post

Next PostThe Beauty of Twentymine 

Happy 2012! (Approximately. Given the annoying largeness of our planet, the way it’s divided into time-zones, and taking into account the insane inhabitants who insist on changing the clocks twice a year to save on candle wax, it’s New Years for some of you at this point.) Celebrate responsibly: By staying at home with your hands folded in your lap, drinking mineral water while listening to light jazz. Leave the partying to trained professionals.

The bad news: The world won’t actually end this year.

The good news: Josh is playing Saints Row The THREE and livestreaming it.

Stop by and watch for a bit. I’ll be there. Jarenth will be there. Heck, Josh might even show up.

EDIT: That was fun. Thanks to everyone who stopped by. Happy New Year!

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.

 Spoiler Warning Presents: Christmas is CanceledPrevious Post

Next PostThe Beauty of Twentymine 

38 comments

Skyrim Thieves Guild Part 5

By Shamus Posted Friday Dec 30, 2011

Filed under: Elder Scrolls 333 comments

 Skyrim Thieves Guild Part 4Previous Post

Next PostThe Altered Scrolls, Part 1: The Story of Arena 

We’re here in this ruin with Karliah and Brynjolf to kill Mercer. Now, we’re all members of the Thieves Guild. In fact, we’re all members of the Nightingales, the secret cult within the Thieves Guild. You would think that if anyone is ready for some sneaking around, it would be these two. But you would be wrong. You would be so wrong. You should be embarassed at how wrong you’d be. Here is how a fight goes:

I, striking from the shadows, drop a foe with a single arrow. The other foes in the area notice this, and begin searching for me. If I were on my own, I would slink away and hit them again from another vantage point, until they were all dead. With the Nightingales in tow, things work a bit differently. As soon as foes begin looking for me, these two idiots start screaming combat taunts, running out into the open and starting a huge melee. This attracts every foe in the room. They block my shots until they run out of hitpoints and go down. (They take a knee. They’re actually immortal.) The foes then abandon them and make a beeline for me, thus forcing my squishy, stealth-focused character into this huge clusterfarg of a battle. Assuming I manage to survive, Karliah and Brynjolf then stand up and spout a couple of triumphant taunts.

This is a move right out of the Leroy Jenkins playbook. (More of a pamphlet, really. It only has one play.) It is completely mystifying to me that the designers would saddle you with these two morons for this extended dungeon crawl. They ruin the atmosphere, they ruin the gameplay, and they’re a constant reminder that the quest I’m on makes no damn sense.

Their one saving grace is that they are just as stupid and clumsy as Mercer, and you can lead them into traps to amuse yourself.

Come on guys. Just a little closer. Remember: Pain is just comedy leaving the body.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Skyrim Thieves Guild Part 5”

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.

 Skyrim Thieves Guild Part 4Previous Post

Next PostThe Altered Scrolls, Part 1: The Story of Arena 

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