NEWER POSTS

Digital Mumbles Radio Show

By Shamus Posted Sunday Dec 18, 2011

Filed under: Links 41 comments
Aunty Paladin’s RPGs and Kid-Helping ExtravaganzaPrevious Post
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Digital Mumbles is a year old? How did this happen? Man, time flies. For the one-year birthday of her site, she did a forty-minute radio style segment where she spun some tunes (Is it still called spinning tunes if it’s digital? Is “spinning” now an old timey-time anachronism?) and answered some questions from readers. She also talked about her college years and how this music has connected with her. She also has a photograph of herself, if you’ve always wanted a face to go with the voice. Basically, this post is a must-see for fans of the Mumbling One.

I’ll also say that she has a shockingly good voice for radio. You can’t tell when she’s screaming insults and profanity at Josh over Vent, backed by gunfire and shrieking about bees, but it turns out this woman has a great voice.

For the record, I’d never heard a single song on her playlist. Song? Heck, even the bands were new to me.

 

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.

Aunty Paladin’s RPGs and Kid-Helping ExtravaganzaPrevious Post
Next PostStreets of Bedlam

41 comments

 

Spoiler Warning Half Life 2 Special EP16: Expose the Core

By Shamus Posted Saturday Dec 17, 2011

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 72 comments
Half Life 2 EP15:I've Fought Headcrabs More Fearsome Than You!Previous Post
Next PostJosh Plays Shogun 2 Part 10: Putting the Pieces Together


Link (YouTube)

And so ends another week of Half-Lifery. This entry might actually be a couple of days late. Yes, I believe it is. In fairness, I think the lion’s share of the blame should fall to Google. Partly because they’re a multi-billion dollar company and can afford to shoulder a little blame now and again, but also because it’s all their fault. I don’t know what the problem was this week. YouTube was so slow and and unreliable that I was expecting them to license the fail whale from Twitter.

This fight at the end of the core-exposing sequence is kind of interesting. I’ve died many times at that point. That exact same point. It’s amazing to see that on multiple play-throughs, players seem to run out of health at exactly the same moment.

Looking back, I think my main problem was recklessness. The earlier waves of guys were trivial. I started off playing carefully, but pretty soon I’d get impatient and start running up to the shield so I could gun them down as soon as they appeared. I’d get further and further from the supplies and shelter of where Alyx is. Then that final wave hits. It’s just a couple of extra guys to fight, but they’re tougher and they’re coming in from both sides. It’s not a huge problem if you’re ready for them, but it’s fatal if you’re in the middle of performing a Leroy Jenkins.

 

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.

Half Life 2 EP15:I've Fought Headcrabs More Fearsome Than You!Previous Post
Next PostJosh Plays Shogun 2 Part 10: Putting the Pieces Together

72 comments

 

Half Life 2 EP15:I’ve Fought Headcrabs More Fearsome Than You!

By Shamus Posted Friday Dec 16, 2011

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 54 comments
Spoiler Warning Half Life 2 Special EP14: Slow Teleporter OperatorPrevious Post
Next PostSpoiler Warning Half Life 2 Special EP16: Expose the Core


Link (YouTube)

 

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 Half Life 2 Special EP14: Slow Teleporter OperatorPrevious Post
Next PostSpoiler Warning Half Life 2 Special EP16: Expose the Core

54 comments

 

Digital-Age Publishing

By Shamus Posted Friday Dec 16, 2011

Filed under: Projects 82 comments
Writing: The Thing I'm DoingPrevious Post
Next PostThe Witch Watch: Release Date

I apologize in advance. I find there is nothing more agonizingly tedious than an author who keeps talking about a book they’ve written but isn’t yet available. A mention is fine. An overview is okay. But post after post of chatter is irritating. It’s like when a game publisher pesters you with a never-ending stream of substance-free teaser trailers for a game you can’t play and know nothing about. You can’t build hype until you can make people care, and you can’t make them care until you have something to show.

I understand this. However, this makes it kind of hard for me to put anything on this blog, since this is all I have in front of me these days. I really hate this. Someone asked about the process of self-publishing, and I thought I’d give a quick look at how it works.

I finished my story over a month ago, and it’s still weeks before it will appear for sale. I realize this sounds perfectly reasonable – perhaps even ludicrously fast – to people used to traditional publishing. But for someone like me who “publishes” crap every day via blogs posts and YouTube uploads, this seems like a lot of needless friction and hassle.

If you’re curious what it takes to make this happen, here it is:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Digital-Age Publishing”

 

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.

Writing: The Thing I'm DoingPrevious Post
Next PostThe Witch Watch: Release Date

82 comments

 

Spoiler Warning Half Life 2 Special EP14: Slow Teleporter Operator

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Dec 14, 2011

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 132 comments
Spoiler Warning Half Life 2 Special EP13: Turrets SyndromePrevious Post
Next PostHalf Life 2 EP15:I've Fought Headcrabs More Fearsome Than You!

Today’s post is almost nine hours late thanks to YouTube being uncharacteristically stupid and broken. It normally takes YT about an hour or so to process the video after Josh uploads it. Today it sat there for six hours, doing nothing. Then Josh uploaded it again. Then it took me an hour to watch the twenty-minute episode because I had to keep stopping to let it buffer. It was like watching a video in 2002.


Link (YouTube)

Remarkable! Google seems to have invented a “slow internet”. This suggests an entirely new line of investigation!

 

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 Half Life 2 Special EP13: Turrets SyndromePrevious Post
Next PostHalf Life 2 EP15:I've Fought Headcrabs More Fearsome Than You!

132 comments

 

Spoiler Warning Half Life 2 Special EP13: Turrets Syndrome

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Dec 13, 2011

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 73 comments
Assassin's Creed 2 EP30: Requiescat in PacePrevious Post
Next PostSpoiler Warning Half Life 2 Special EP14: Slow Teleporter Operator


Link (YouTube)

Allow me to apologize in advance for whatever I might say during the show this week. I was still a bit out of sorts from an illness and I remember experiencing several moments of befuddlement during our recording session.

As promised, here is the link for the Old Man Murray thing on stupid adventure games.

 

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.

Assassin's Creed 2 EP30: Requiescat in PacePrevious Post
Next PostSpoiler Warning Half Life 2 Special EP14: Slow Teleporter Operator

73 comments

 

Aunty Paladin’s RPGs and Kid-Helping Extravaganza

By Shamus Posted Monday Dec 12, 2011

Filed under: Links 78 comments
Bikes!Previous Post
Next PostDigital Mumbles Radio Show

Rutskarn is taking part in some sort of madcap scheme to raise money for charity. They’re going to play tabletop RPG’s, and keep playing tabletop RPG’s, for a long time. I don’t know how long. It has been suggested that they are aiming for “too long” as their target timeframe. All of it will be livestreamed. In fact, you could be watching it right now. Tune in and find out if Rutskarn is really older than ten, as he habitually claims.

According to the cut & paste I just did from Rutskarn’s blog, they will be playing:

  • Maid, a game in which you play a pastiche of an anime or manga maid who seriously just takes care of a master for the whole session. It's actually a lot of fun.
  • Paranoia, a game of backstabbing, treachery, and < >
  • Buck Rogers vs. The Han, published by TSR as part of its “we're still slightly more relevant than this license” series of RPGs.
  • FATAL, the king of awful roleplaying games, a game that has caused literal physical discomfort in almost everyone I've explained it to. I'd almost recommend you don't Google it. Not at work, anyway.

Visit the official site for details on who benefits and how it all works, and to watch the live feed of the condemned.

 

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.

Bikes!Previous Post
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78 comments

 
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