Diecast #378: Email Madness

By Shamus Posted Monday Apr 11, 2022

Filed under: Diecast 91 comments

Once again, I was sure the show was running long. And yet again, the resulting podcast is just under an hour. I guess I underestimate just how much ends up on the cutting room floor. Between segments Paul and I frequently stop and talk about what topic we want to jump to next. Or we pause while one of us looks up something on Google.

In my mind, these take only a few seconds. But apparently we spend five to ten minutes on this sort of stuff. Weird.



Hosts: Paul, Shamus. Episode edited by Issac.
Diecast378


Link (YouTube)

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #378: Email Madness”

 


 

A Travelog of Ivalice, Part 13: Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

By The Rocketeer Posted Wednesday Apr 6, 2022

Filed under: FFXII 73 comments

Back in Giruvegan, the party is back in the room where they fought Shemhazai; the gate to the floating platform is forever closed now. Too bad, since we, you know, STILL DON’T KNOW HOW TO USE NETHICITE. I’m serious, even if we’re content with just using it as a blunt-force nuke crystal, how do we even do that? Do we throw it like a grenade? I can see some issues with that regarding the blast radius. Are there magic words? A dance, perhaps? At this point our only method of deploying nethicite as a weapon is to load it into one of our own airships’ engine drives and fly it into the enemy’s lines as a kamikaze superbomb. I mean, that’s not bad, but it only works once, and if we can use it as more of a deathray I think that would be a bit more efficient. I’m not hard to please.Well, I mean… Oh, fine.

Another thing the Occuria neglected to mention is where to find the Sun-Cryst. I’m sure it slipped their minds. The party looks to Fran, to see if Gerun’s flowery description stirred anything in the ol’ travelogue,Why did I not spell this here as I spell it in title of the thing? There’s a very good reason: I’m still a hack. but she comes up empty. It’s fine, I’m sure Fran’s really good at plenty of other stuff we never see.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “A Travelog of Ivalice, Part 13: Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”

 


 

Stolen Pixels #241: Gaming Afterlife

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Apr 5, 2022

Filed under: Random 113 comments

This comic appeared on the Escapist way back in November 2010. Unlike most of my old comics, this one is still sort of visible. The navigation is broken, the comments are gone, there are missing images, and the formatting is a mess, but at least the comic is still visible. Which is good, since I think this is the most popular entry in the entire strip.

The original text was as follows:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Stolen Pixels #241: Gaming Afterlife”

 


 

Diecast #377: Xbox Desolation

By Shamus Posted Monday Apr 4, 2022

Filed under: Diecast 71 comments

I forgot to mention it on the show, but I got a community award from Steam this week. I didn’t even know that community awards were a thing? The award also came with a prize! I received 100 Steam points, which were added to my 177,085 total. I’m rich! Or something. More details below.



Hosts: Paul, Shamus. Episode edited by Issac.
Diecast377


Link (YouTube)

Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #377: Xbox Desolation”

 


 

FF12 Sightseeing Tour Part 12: Face the Music

By Shamus Posted Friday Apr 1, 2022

Filed under: Retrospectives 79 comments

This is the last entry in my series. But before I go, let me inflict one last gripe on you. After this, you’ll be glad to be rid of me. 

Over the years I’ve built up something of a reputation as a fussy nitpicker who hates everything and complains all the time. Sometimes I think that’s a bit unfair. I love games! I enjoy them all the time. It’s just that criticism is more spacious than praise. It takes one paragraph to describe why I like something and ten paragraphs to detail why I don’t. This results in a lot of articles that – going strictly by word count – are mostly negative. 

But today I’m going to really earn my reputation as an impossible-to-please critic. A complainer. A gripe merchant. An angry rain cloud in search of a parade. Because I’m going to dump on the one thing in this mess of a game that everyone agrees is aces.

Face The Music

Everybody loves the music. No matter how much people might bitch and moan about the characters, the plot, the themes, the gameplay, the license board, the costumes, or any of the other problem areas in this game, they always stop at the end to admit that despite all of these other problems, the music is really good. 

Everyone except me. I’m just not feeling it.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “FF12 Sightseeing Tour Part 12: Face the Music”

 


 

A Travelog of Ivalice, Part XII: A Saucerful of Secrets

By The Rocketeer Posted Wednesday Mar 30, 2022

Filed under: FFXII 58 comments

There are indeed a few of Reddas’ shortbus pirates with the lowdown on the Feywood awaiting Vaan outside. Well, that does them a bit too much credit; they tell us it’s south of Golmore and is rich in mist, which I already knew from the previous conversation and, in fact, from having already been there to farm monster parts. They do mention some sort of trial, the passing of which is necessary to reach Giruvegan beyond, and indeed there was a path I couldn’t traverse before.

Rocketeer's actual correspondence to Shamus: ''We absolutely have to have some picture of these chucklefucks and a caption to the effect that they make the cast of Final Fantasy X look like a fucking Brooks Brothers catalog''
Rocketeer's actual correspondence to Shamus: ''We absolutely have to have some picture of these chucklefucks and a caption to the effect that they make the cast of Final Fantasy X look like a fucking Brooks Brothers catalog''

A quick stroll on out to the Feywood later, and that path, previously blocked by a thick current of rushing mist,mist can do anything, shut up clears up at Ashe’s approach as the mist dissipates with a final howl. On cue, Rasler appears and wanders deeper into the snowy wood, beckoning her further.

Et voilà.
Et voilà.

He could have at least warned us about the boss fight in the next area, the spooky Nabradian git. Thanks to the multitude of status effects at its disposal it managed to annoy me a bit despite my overpoweredness. So! That must have been the trial of the Feywood, which means Giruvegan lies just ahead.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “A Travelog of Ivalice, Part XII: A Saucerful of Secrets”

 


 

Boomers vs. Videogames

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Mar 29, 2022

Filed under: Column 171 comments

Normally when I make a video for YouTube, I take my transcript and turn it into an article. This usually involves cutting out the parts that won’t work in print: Bits of footage, audio gags, jokes where my narration disagrees with the slides I’m showing, and so on. This video is quite short – about 14 minutes – and it has a lot of these sorts of video-only shenanigans. If I cut them all out, then there wouldn’t be much left.

So rather that clean up the script for print, I’m going to publish it as-is.Actually, I did get rid of one gag related to mispronouncing “Marcin Iwi?ski”. I don’t know how well this will work, but I’m sure you’ll let me know in the comments. Anyway, here it is…

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Boomers vs. Videogames”