Problem Machine

I like Longplays of games I've played or have no interest in ever playing as a general sleepy time pseudo-research activity. It's very relaxing and enlightening sometimes to study old games that way. As for let's plays, I'll watch them if it's someone who I enjoy watching, which is usually going to be Northernlion or occasionally Ster. They both rarely play one-and-done narrative-focused games though, so it's a bit different than the usual let's play experience I think.

Saying it's a perfect depiction of the Batman universe is a tad silly considering just how many universes the Batman universe encompasses. Sure, it emulates some of them, but there are decisions made about which aspects of Batman to keep and which to leave, which to emphasize and which to deemphasize, and that's an authorial choice in every case. I don't think it's fair to blame that on Batman generally, though it is perhaps fair to lay much of the blame for the grossness in those games at the feet of the same culture that generated the Furiosa comic. In the end, as long as that culture exists, snipes against GG are just going to create more no-true-scotsmen situations where the same culture of harassment thrives under different names. And, as pointed out, this is hardly a very good snipe against GG in the first place, since it doesn't seem to have any real point behind it.

As awful as it is, it's kind of hilarious seeing them say "no qualification in journalism" right before listing some pretty impressive qualifications in journalism. Pretty much par for the course with GG though.

Isn't that only a problem if you have no minority project leads? Isn't that itself a problem?

Well, I think it's saying that the overtly racist is not so neatly separable from the not-racist, since that racism was such a prevalent attitude at the time. I think it's likely that Mickey Mouse and Felix do inherit from that tradition in a way that's reflected in their design, even if the intent behind them wasn't to caricature a given race.

Another point re: Cuphead's visual style worth considering is that there's a rather ugly history associated with that style of animation. I don't have a horse in that race but it's a perspective I think is interesting.

Well, The Neverhood wasn't really pursuing that aesthetic, so they would have undermined their own intent to do so. I kind of feel like the segments that were basically drawn animation run through a filter (the Willy Trombone monologue disks) kind of undermined the games aesthetic as it was.. I think, though, that an action game that looked like Ray Harryhausen stop motion animation could be kind of really awesome, even if the choppy motion and flickering light that was typical of those segments was accidental I think they added a unique character which is worth examining and trying to invoke towards a specific aesthetic intent. I feel kind of the same way about 20s-30s animation: I totally agree with you that it is, in general, less satisfying, but I also think that its unnaturally smoothed-over motion and bendy jointlessness could be harnessed towards some really interesting and cool aesthetic ends.

I think there's a lot of room for 'bad' animation so long as it's done with care and intent. Like, even though they looked really funky in a ton of ways, I would love a game that aped the aesthetic of an old stop-motion animated short -- probably a lot more than I would one that hints at that style, but breaks from it freely. Though I probably agree with the decision pragmatically, I was disappointed at the use of CGI for stuff like smoke in Box Trolls for that reason.

I know that the Finale series of products also allows composing using MIDI instruments on a traditional music staff sheet, and many years ago I used an old version of that to write music with. I have no idea what the current capabilities of that software is, but I imagine that aspect at least is still the same.

I've never had trouble keeping Chris, Sean, or Jake's voice straight, but it took me quite a while to tell Steve and Nick apart.

I didn't watch the trailer but that's also how a lot of the discourse around the game has been. Like on the cast Danielle gave a synopsis and was enthusiastic about the game, but didn't really give much idea of what the moment-to-moment action of the game was. Anna Anthropy was saying on twitter that we had to ask what it was that made Gone Home a hit and Sunset a failure, and to me that's the biggest thing: Long before playing, I knew that Gone Home was basically the exploration and storytelling component of a Bioshock game put into a mundane and non-violent context. Admittedly, I have an advantage in that regard as a Thumbs reader, but I think Gone Home did a really good job of conveying that basic tenet of design in a way the promotion/presentation of Sunset just hasn't handled well at all.

John Oliver on Internet Harassment: Comments are predictably full of angry idiots.

I think they might be putting effort into not putting effort into it. I think the perception is that putting effort into it would make them look bad? I dunno. Video games are basically fashion opposite day forever?

Am I the only one who feels like this PR company they hired completely dropped the ball here? All that effort they put into making Sunset a more traditionally approachable game isn't helpful if no one knows that's what it is, and though I've heard some good buzz on Sunset I had no idea it was any different than their usual interesting-but-inaccessible approach. All of the vectors I would have usually expected to hear about this from have been silent about the specifics of why this is a game I should be interested in. It's a shitty situation, but it bothers me that the takeaway that a lot of people seem to be getting is that it's not worth bothering to make a game more approachable or accessible.

In the end I got away spending less than $30 and picking up: The Witcher 2 Nidhogg Contraption Maker Cook, Serve, Delicious The Fall LISA One Finger Death Punch Call of Juarez: Gunslinger Fallout New Vegas fancy everything edition Also a friend got me Octodad

I grew up there but I'm in Eugene Oregon now. It's kind of like Sacramento except more so.

I saw a thread on twitter which I cannot now find which I'm going to try to paraphrase: Whiteness is regarded as civilization and grace by excluding the poor people who don't live up to that standard as 'white trash'. 'White trash' culture then becomes a focal point for racism as a way of still maintaining pride, essentially saying "Well I may be trash but I'm still white [and therefore superior]." Because of this, even progressive whiteness supports the white supremacy by propping up a class system that incubates it. I'm not sure how to address that problem, beyond doing what we can to abolish poverty and class.

No I think it's a good point: While fetishization of the confederate flag and what it represents certainly contributes to the kind of overt racism that lead to the Charleston shootings, trying to pretend that that's the whole story is eventually just giving a free pass to the 'good' white people to address that and then say "OKAY RACISM'S SOLVED YAY", ignoring that the systems that killed Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown and so many others are still in place and getting stronger. Still, if we can attack this most visible facet of white supremacy, it at least is a way to show that these are not traits we want to encourage in our police and armed forces.

I agree but I also don't have much to say. I guess I'll say the confederate flag is a white supremacist symbol and it's fucking shameful we still let it fly over government buildings.

Classy :\ Here's a watchable version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaW47WxcwPQ

I haven't even been doing that! I watched like the Jordan Owen rubber ducky video and like 30 seconds of that interview where they completely failed to set the sound up properly and it's been dogging my recommendations forever. If it's going to fill it with random shit I watched a year ago, why not AGQD speedruns or romhack playthroughs?

Yeah it's dumb and kind of funny, but it bothers me, not least because I find it super gross that youtube thinks I want to see that shit.

It hasn't yet, and I play asshole whack-a-mole every time.

Only the first episode is 50% off, everything else is a piddly 20%