T w e n t y S i d e d
Q: What do Ronald McDonald, Bozo, and the Grey Warden have in common?
A: Far too much.
LOTRO Screenshot, Follow-up
Responses on the previous post were gratifying, since nearly everyone had the same complaints that I did. I brought this up not because I wanted to pick on poor LOTRO, but because I was really curious how other people would react to it. I was worried that perhaps noticing this sort of thing was a leftover from the time when I did this for a living. Maybe I was just being a 3D art snob? Maybe the average player doesn’t notice or care about details like this? But it looks like people do notice this sort of thing.
For the record, I was talking about the texture mapping:
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(Also for the record: I’m playing the game with high detail settings, and this shot is not indicative of what the game looks like as a whole. Also also: I just now tried to fire up the game and make sure I didn’t accidentally set the graphics to “ass”, but LOTRO is in the middle of an update at the moment. So let’s just go with what we’ve got here.)
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “LOTRO Screenshot, Follow-up”
LOTRO Screenshot
I want to try a little experiment, if you’ll indulge me. Take a look at these two screenshots from Lord of the Rings Online:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “LOTRO Screenshot”
Dragon Age: Twitter Review Pt. 5
While I avoided posting spoilers to Twitter, I’m going to talk openly about events in the third act here. This post is intended for people who have played through and want to discuss plot specifics. I was planning on tagging spoilers, but I don’t think there would be much of the post left afterward.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Dragon Age: Twitter Review Pt. 5”
Announcements
Several people have asked when the Champions Online series will end, if I’ll do anything next, and what that might be:
1) The Champions Online series will end with part 15. This should go up the last week of December or the first week of January, depending on how much time I take off for the holidays.
2) Yes, I’ll be doing another Let’s Play series after this.
3) I can’t tell you any more than that right now.
Now, those of you following my Twitter feed know that I’ve been voting for The Escapist in the latest Web 2.0 popularity contest at Mashable.
Despite my mocking, this sort of thing is actually really important to web companies. Nobody ever talks about it because it would be unseemly, but scoring awards like this can give a publication a lot of clout when attracting advertisers and also in dictating what they can charge those advertisers. Winning stuff like this can help improve the fortunes of a company, particularly younger ones. Since I’ve hitched my wagon to the Escapist, I’d love for them to reap those rewards.
I’d also love for them to win because of the nice counterbalance they provide to the review-score hype mills that usually get all the attention*. I think a lot of us here like thoughtful articles as opposed to fanboy-driven ego-stroking, and so it would be nice if we could lift up the stuff we value.
Which is all a really roundabout way of me begging for votes for my friends at The Escapist, which is a thing you could do by clicking on this link. It’s all done through Twitter, so you have to have a Twitter account to vote. I’m sorry. It’s a web 2.0 thing. Didn’t you know? Web 2.0 is about connecting every social media site to every other one in a giant clusterfarg of account names and logins until the whole network collapses in on itself and forms a CSS-compliant singularity.
I’ll make a deal with you: If the Escapist wins, I’ll post a burning, hate-filled screed on everything that totally bugs me about the Mashable awards.
But not yet. Don’t want to tip our hand just yet.
But if you dig what I do over there, or over here, then please consider voting.
* And by “attention” I mean “money”.
A Star is Born:
Let’s Play Champions Online Pt. 12
Despite my better judgment, I return to Socrates for my reward and for another job.
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| It’s actually not a good idea to read these. |
So… our creepy 1984-style big-brother cybermind just saw an explosion that mutated a bunch of scientists. He has no idea what caused it or why, or if it mutation is contagious, but he’s got the antidote worked out and he wants me to go over there and whip up a batch of the stuff for the eggheads. Well, it’s rotten nonsense, but I have to say it’s a lot less crazy and shame-inducing than fighting Foxbat. (Of course, the same could be said of using baby seals as a melee weapon to beat up crippled orphans on Christmas Eve.)
I arrive at the scene of the disaster to have a look at the damage.
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There are the refrigerator-sized containers strewn around the parking lot amongst the burning cars, mutated scientists, and terrorist soldiers. The containers ostensibly contain the resources I need. The terrorists contain a deep hatred for the establishment. The cars contain fire.
The scientists do not look well:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “A Star is Born:
Let’s Play Champions Online Pt. 12″
Stolen Pixels #149: Approval Ratings
Morrigan disapproves of this comic.
From The Archives:
What is Vulkan?
What is this Vulkan stuff? A graphics engine? A game engine? A new flavor of breakfast cereal? And how is it supposed to make PC games better?
Push the Button!
Scenes from Half-Life 2:Episode 2, showing Gordon Freeman being a jerk.
The Loot Lottery
What makes the gameplay of Borderlands so addictive for some, and what does that have to do with slot machines?
The Disappointment Engine
No Man's Sky is a game seemingly engineered to create a cycle of anticipation and disappointment.
Borderlands Series
A look at the main Borderlands games. What works, what doesn't, and where the series can go from here.
Self-Balancing Gameplay
There's a wonderful way to balance difficulty in RPGs, and designers try to prevent it. For some reason.
If Star Wars Was Made in 2006?
Imagine if the original Star Wars hadn't appeared in the 1970's, but instead was pitched to studios in 2006. How would that turn out?
A Star is Born
Remember the superhero MMO from 2009? Neither does anyone else. It was dumb. So dumb I was compelled to write this.
Fixing Match 3
For one of the most popular casual games in existence, Match 3 is actually really broken. Until one developer fixed it.
This Game is Too Videogame-y
What's wrong with a game being "too videogameish"?