Henroid

Okay I've been cool with the big dog but that was frightening. Perhaps the big dog can learn to value life before destroying all of it.

Where exactly in Oakland is this though? The city, suburbs, or the hills? It's pretty different in every sub-region.

Oh crap, I forgot to post about beating the game! I've done so twice actually; Prismatic Bolt embermage (which is the cheesiest build in a game ever) and my dual-wield Outlander. The dungeons being two floors all the way through was pretty formulaic and boring, yeah. I'm not sure I agree with the bosses not putting up a challenge. On my first character through that was true but I knew I was having an easy ride. On my Outlander I had to do a lot of running away from scary attacks. I have yet to beat the game on any melee builds and they are tragically the most difficult. Still, it very much does invoke the same feeling as Diablo 2 did for part one. Plus my hindsight criticisms of Diablo 2 are nowhere to be found here.

Steam treats video games like objects.

You're thinking of San Diego.

Probably a dozen or so. It's actually a bunch of acclaimed hits (Deus Ex: HR, Bioshock, Arkham Asylum) that my PC isn't able to run and I've been snagging things when I can for when I get a new computer. Which I've been mixed lazy about and SOL financially on. I try to get the most out of every game I buy so I don't buy very many.

I grew up in the Bay Area and lived there 'til a few years ago, but my memory of it is that job competition has always been high and commuting can be a big nightmare. Thankfully though, the BART train exists, so if you have a job in one part of the bay and live in another, it might make it easier depending on walking distance at your arrival location. I wouldn't specifically aim to live in one part of the Bay Area. The nice thing about it is that you can live anywhere in it and be an hour tops from getting anywhere else. I lived near Hayward and trips to San Francisco were easily (and cheaply) a daily event.

Someone included this in one of the discussions. It's pretty flippant but I enjoyed it anyway.

I'm so glad people's $200 went toward jets to replace fire engines for this. Edit - Rogue Edit Edit - When you guys (Jake, Chris) say you didn't like KotOR, what about it? Was it the mechanics or the story/presentation?

I don't know why this didn't occur to me until just now, but the Runic Games forum (in the wake of TL2 being launched) is FULL of gripes about difficulty. And it's gripes that I feel are so... wrong. Let me share some of the stuff I've been coming across. Better Drops For Higher Difficulty There was this strange concept floating around over the weekend, finally dying off mid-week, of people griping that the game's "Elite" difficulty (the hardest) should reward players with higher drop rates. The concept of playing for the challenge of things was lost on a few, and for others the concept not being applicable to their taste meant that nobody else should have it. Or at least that Runic was wrong to build the game the way they did. But it really makes me wonder what the heck fostered this concept of tangible reward for doing something harder. I don't buy into that "only TRUE gamers should play this game!" type stuff or get into any sort of "no true Scottsman" mentality with video games, but I also stay clear of the other side - which would be "I should never lose and never face adversity." This Thing Killed Me, Remove It The latest incarnation of this was someone dying to traps in the game. See the latter portions of what I wrote above, but there were actual expectations that standing on a dangerous thing shouldn't result in death. I know what brought this into people's minds of "the way things are in video games." There's been plenty of games (Torchlight the first had some of this going on) where spike traps or what have you hurt, but only a little. So it didn't really hurt to stand atop them and fight from there. But really, if you see something is deadly to the point of possible one-hit-death, maybe you should endeavor to stay clear. Not rant about poor design. What's the Point of Higher Difficulty? There are people who gripe about elite or veteran difficulties in the game being so hard that they question "what's the point," and the concept even comes up with hardcore mode (once you die, that character is done for good). Again, the attitude here is that if a player can't be served by something, why is that something present? It's an odd perception. I feel as though these types of commentary are coming from people who are having their first experience with a video game ever and have their preconceptions about why people play video games. For them, the concept of challenge isn't in the picture and they don't understand there is a legit portion of the audience that wants to be challenged rather than have a casual experience.

That is absurd; I have done runs at Mega Man games where I avoid using the weaknesses and stick to the mega buster. Did the same for the Mega Man X games as well. The weapon weaknesses in the original series allow for you to succeed easily while taking hits here and there. If you stick to the regular weapon, you're relying more on being able to avoid the boss' attacks and learning his pattern. Which can be fun, and can be frustrating when certain elements align and fuck you no matter what. But it isn't impossible; it's learnable, and it's difficult, but it is doable. Edit - I am not the most expert-pro person at video games and I've actually lost a lot of my 8-bit era adjusting while playing a game. I specifically mentioned the foresight issue and came into the idea of being given a chance to learn what went wrong when you die or fail at something in a game. Because Mega Man isn't one-hit-kill in its boss fights, you have time to still watch how the boss leaps around, how he shoots, when he does, etc. So, yeah, there are moments like that spike fall that are bullshit, but I think in the case of Mega Man those are accidental, not part of the intentional design. Because the bosses are designed to give you chances to learn; you get to restart right there with bosses if you fail.

I'm really considering moving back to California because of the newborn baby nephew from this spring. He's the first from my family blood line (not to put down my step nephews and nieces, they all rule), and I was there for all my other nephews and nieces as they were babies / children growing up. I don't want to miss out on this one.

We need Nick Breckon's impressions of Resident Evil 6. He's the expert even if he is no longer on the podcast regularly.

Paul and David Brettner have left Zynga, joining other leadership that have left the company this past season. (via Joystiq) Also, Zynga's stock from the last six months. (It's a chart; I tried to imbue it as an image but it wasn't allowed) I'm not particularly concerned with Zynga's crash and burn over the last year. The company's business strategy has been like a hyperbolic version of Activision (kill creativity for the sake of money) and hasn't really brought the industry any good, aside from displaying social media is a platform for game development. Problem is, you can't half-ass it like Zynga does, nor can you try to rapidly expand overnight like they have (in buying competitors and such).

Full agreement on the Catacombs music. Or just in general, it was the best setting in Diablo. It had the right blend of having tightness to the rooms and corridors while still allowing you to see complete darkness down the way, and shadows moving about. The Caves actually could have hit it if it was generally tunnels you navigated, too. The claustrophobic feeling would've been paramount. It being a generally open room really sapped any menace there was to the place.

I disagree with the notion that Torchlight had the same sort of intimacy that Diablo did. The settings every few floors in Torchlight would change rather nonsensically. I mean, even for a whimsical version of Diablo (which is a pretty apt description). Though to be fair, if that third area (the water temple) wasn't in, it would've flowed much better. Edit - But another point of contention on that is how *vast* each floor is in Torchlight. I mean yeah, there's a lot more to do, but in Diablo the space being relatively small meant balancing each encounter with enemies to be harder. You were fighting for each step taken. That aspect was lost in Torchlight.

Stomping on critters triggers any of your "on kill" procs, it's fucking great. I've stepped on bugs and triggered my staff's 2% chance on kill to heal completely. First balancing patch has come out. Prismatic Bolt got nerfed, sorta, it's still super strong. Glaive Throw got nerfed too (and WoW mentalities have struck as a result). Battle Standard got fixed so you don't have infinite mana with it. Lots of other stuff. Those are the biggest changes though.

I would describe it as being more of structurally tutorialized. But absolutely correct on this point.

Sounds like it needs optimization. But yeah, this looks like a highscore game and it has a very straight-forward premise. I saw someone doing a Lets Play of it and it needs more guidance on tools and what they can do for you. I do like that there's little permanence with this. You have to rebuild your tools when you use them too much. But hopefully you can create stronger versions of them, as a function added later on. It is in-progress development wise, afterall.

I disagree. I left the podcast running while I was getting to bed (I let the radio play when going to sleep, I'm weird) and it woke me up and creeped me out.

Hey uh. Cliffy B has left Epic Games. Says he needs a big break from an industry he grew up in.

Oh boy, Torchlight 2 discussion! Which started out like... how I didn't expect at all. Questions time! Chris, since you're the more Torchlight savvy of the gang, does the soft-targeting with the mouse feel really odd in part 2 compared to the first game (or any game)? And what are you guys playing more specifically in Torchlight? Like what skill trees appeal most to you Sean / Chris?

Trial and error gameplay is fine, but the line to walk with it is very narrow. You can either make things way too difficult (wasting time, like losing a half hour to an hour (or more!) when you die) or make it way too easy (Knit Stories had a save point for like every screen that was more than scenery). It's a bit "eye of the beholder"ish.

Ohhhhhohoho this game looks goddamn sweet.