sclpls

Chris Remo appeared on some sort of Kotaku podcast with Kirk Hamilton. A lot of talk about music as a medium and how it compares to games as a medium. https://simplecast.com/s/d82110a0 EDIT: Oh uhh, also Firewatch spoilers, so heads up on that!

Great discussion on the different types of difficulties that exist in games with regard to Hyper Light Drifter. I didn't have nearly as much trouble with HLD as it seems to be causing a lot of people, and I was trying to figure out why, because I'm actually awful at twitchy type games. There are a lot of platformers that I can't play. When people would watch me play Spelunky I received a lot of comments about how I played in this super-conservative, cautious style. That wasn't by choice, it was literally the only way I was capable of engaging with the game. I remember seeing some stuff Chris would do in his stream, and realizing that he could do stuff that I could never hope to replicate. There are some side levels in Spelunky like the alien ship that I've never gotten through because they seem to require a degree of twitch skill that is beyond me. I mostly play strategy games, but I never got good at anything like SC 2, and I've never been good at mutliplayer shooters. So knowing all that, I figured there had to be some other wall people were hitting. And after watching a couple of people streaming the game, and playing on youtube, I noticed that there are a couple of rules that people are assuming about the game that aren't actually true, and that is making their experience playing the game much more difficult then it actually is. The most common thing I've seen is people moving and positioning themselves in a way where they are trying to avoid making contact with enemies. Presumably that's because in something like old Zelda games you take damage that way. But in HLD that's not the case, you only take damage from attack animations, and enemies always signal when an attack animation is about to happen. That means there's a lot of information people aren't taking advantage of. So that's an interesting example of how subtle design decisions can impact how a player experiences a game. Because the game looks like these other games where the rules work differently, and there isn't anything in the game explicitly explaining to you that this is how the mechanics work, you just kind of have to observe it for yourself, and if you don't pick up on these cues the game is transmitting then it is easy to feel frustrated.

Honestly the fact that that sort of super thin, superficial criticism is all that exists is kind of refreshing. It suggests that the whole party is on the same track even if people have different temperaments, and have different relationships to existing political institutions. That was certainly not the case back in the 90s when the Third Way was relevant, and the Democratic party had much worse objectives it was trying to achieve.

Clinton and Obama both had thoroughly sketched out healthcare plans. Ironically, the key difference between the two plans was that Obama said he didn't favor the individual mandate. I don't think the criticisms of Sander's vague plans are fair though, he doesn't have access to the same sort of policy think tanks that Clinton has access to, but if he becomes President he will surely have access to some deep policy minds. There are some instances where this vagueness is a genuine problem -- for example his free college education program as he has described it is frankly completely unworkable -- but most of the time his plans have enough details that they can be developed down the line. And anyway none of these plans are ever going to be implemented unless Democrats end up controlling both chambers of Congress, a scenario I still find incredibly implausible even with the weakness of the current Republican frontrunners. So these proposals are more of a way to signal to voters that a candidate shares their core values.

The ramen broth is definitely the most challenging aspect for the home cook. The way restaurants make ramen broth is not something that can really be replicated at home. The home version often calls for stock with a mixture of pork and chicken bones. Which is fine, but I don't usually have pork bones a lot, so I end up making a chicken stock. I've been kind of fascinated for the last year with the different techniques involved in Asian and Western stocks. In a Western stock for example you would never allow the water to boil, you just keep things simmering for a long time. But I've seen lots of examples of Japanese stocks that call for boiling. The types of vegetables to season the stock also change, for a Western style stock I use carrots & celery, maybe a bay leaf. In an Asian style stock I would use things like ginger and green onions. But I've also seen Japanese stocks that only used animal bones (see for example this Saveur recipe: http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Sesame-Chile-Ramen ) and that appealed to my preference for minimalist recipes. I don't really buy chicken wings, but I do roast whole chickens quite a bit for dinner so I decided to try this minimalist approach out using the leftover bones and carcass. I toss all that stuff into a pot and fill it with water and bring that to a boil (that should loosen up a bunch of stuff), and then throw that in a colander, and then rinse it off with cold water until everything is cleaned out. Then I put it back in the pot again, covered it with water, and brought it back to a boil. I reduced the heat and then let it do its thing until the volume of water reduced down by about a third. At that point it has a super nice, clean flavor. At that point you remove and discard the bones, and use the stock, store it, whatever. For the tan tan style ramen I combine it with a Japanese sesame paste (you can substitute tahnini sauce if you don't have access to Asian grocery stores that would carry something like that, the color will be a little weird, but the flavor is basically the same) and that's the soup. Obviously for other styles of ramen you do something different, but I think that is a pretty good base to start with! For the eggs I haven't done sous vide stuff (because I have a tiny kitchen and don't have room for stuff like that), but otherwise the serious eats link you posted is not too dissimilar to what I did. I boiled the eggs for about 5 to 7 minutes (I have tried 5, 6, and 7 minutes and liked the texture for all of those, but basically it is a question of how runny vs firm you want your yolk to be). But before boiling the egg I take a needle or pin, and poke a tiny hole in the bottom of the egg. While the eggs are boiling I stir them constantly with a spoon or chopsticks. I think those two steps are kind of crucial for the texture of the eggs so I would recommend giving that a shot if you're having issues with the texture. It also makes peeling the egg shells off less of a hassle. The soy marinade sounds totally right to me: a mixture of soy sauce and mirin. I also throw in a bunch of other stuff: green onions, ginger, garlic, and star anise. It's the sort of thing where you can experiment a lot with the stuff that goes into it. I prepared the eggs at night before going to bed, would stick them in the marinade overnight, and then remove them to a separate jar in the morning. Anyway, I hope all of that is potentially useful info. I love talking about the nitty gritty of cooking because I feel like paying close attention to a couple of small things can really make a huge difference.

Finished the game. Final thought:

Still holding out to pick this game off on a sale where it is 50% off, but it hasn't dropped to that price yet.

I went east, west, north. I'm now in south (which I think is gated off initially anyway unless I'm misremembering things). I thought the boss battles were tremendous fun. Two of the fights ended where I was staying alive with 1 HP for the last 1/4 and managed to get the last hit in before I would have wiped. I finally got a handle around how the dungeon maps work. I don't like the shotgun at all, but I like the laser gun a ton. I also upgraded the spin attack, but it takes so long to charge up I end up never using it.

Yeah I often forget about the gun too, but I actually find that is for the best most of the time because it is so inaccurate. Useful opening vs trash mobs though.

I've always wondered what a constitutional crisis would look like in the U.S. In Latin America it involves a military coup, but that seems hard to imagine in the U.S. today. But with the direction Kansas is heading maybe we get to find out the horrible details?

The work to make things horrible is not finished yet, apparently. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/02/us/outraged-by-kansas-justices-rulings-gop-seeks-to-reshape-court.html?_r=0

It autosaves, but it is pretty generous with that. Basically every time you enter a new room/area it autosaves, and it also autosaves after you clear a room out of enemies.

Yeah, the best case scenario for the episodic release is it just allows Io to keep making Hitman levels, and allows for greater design than a traditional $60 package would allow for.

So I played this last night, and I think it is pretty incredible. The obvious thing to say about it is the pixel art and low key synth soundtrack are incredible. The high tech post-apocalyptic/fantasy vibe is really doing it for me. This is definitely a place you want to explore. I've seen a lot of comparisons to Zelda and Dark Souls. Those are understandable comparisons, but also kinda way off base with the caveat that I'm only about 3 hours into the game, and haven't done one of the big boss fights. The game most closely resembles Zelda because of the map. It is basically a sci-fi Zelda map. However the dungeon structure strikes me as distinctly un-Zelda like. This is where the Dark Souls comparison comes in. The level design feels very Souls-y to me. The dungeons are heavily layered where you keep exploring and revealing further depths. There is lock and key stuff, but it works differently from a Zelda game. The rooms are a lot less puzzle-y, and (so far) there isn't some item you acquire that unlocks the rest of the dungeon for you. It feels a lot more sophisticated than that. The other similarity the game has to Dark Souls is the approach to story telling. This game is very much showing, not telling, in some cases quite literally. When you encounter characters that you can talk to, no words appear, instead you see a slide of pictures telling a story. The way the game leaves the story to the player's imagination and curiosity is really refreshing. There don't seem to be new items you pick up in the game. Instead you go back to the central town hub, and there are merchants that allow you to upgrade your various starting abilities using whatever the game's financial instrument is that you collect. In the RPS impressions John Walker complained that the game was too hard, specifically the boss fights. The difficulty is where a lot of people seem to be making Dark Souls comparisons, and while the game is difficult, it is difficult in a different way from a Souls game. The Souls games are difficult because of a. unfamiliarity with a hostile environment, b. the consequence of death is that it wrecks your economic progressions, and c. the relative sparseness of respawn points. HLD doesn't have any of those features. Its difficult because it demands precision in combat. You have three moves starting out: a sword swipe, a dash/blink move, and a gun you can fire. The gun has limited ammo that you replenish by hitting enemies with your sword (video games!) When you enter a room full of enemies what will often happen is more enemies start spawning in, so your job is to figure out the most efficient way to string together these moves together before you get overwhelmed. Taking too long to kill enemies generally gets you killed. The payoff though is that when you do clear a room it feels really good. I can't comment on the boss battles since I haven't gotten to a boss yet, but if the same thoughtfulness has been used for the general combat design I don't think I'm going to share John Walker's complaints. So far my only gripe with this game is I can't really make any sense out of the dungeon level maps. The overworld map is crystal clear, but the dungeon maps? No idea how I would get from point A to point B relying on it... Wish I was playing this now!

I guess I'm late on this, but I made some ramen earlier this week, and I thought it turned out great. I was going for the tan tan style ramen with a really spicy broth, and ground pork. I'm also stoked on my soy marinated eggs which is my favorite part of eating ramen.

Congrats on releasing what looks like a cool game! Can't wait to play it when I get back home tonight.

Yeah I mean I checked out of the gamergate thread a long time ago because it was just way too deep into the weeds for me to follow. This is a story that has been covered by a ton of outlets though, and is clearly relevant to the thread because, some disputed issue regarding Alison Rapp's 2nd place of employment notwithstanding, she got fired essentially for being a woman who expressed feminist ideas on twitter.

This might be the most brazenly cynical harassment campaign yet. But it has been awhile so I'm sure there is horrible stuff I'm forgetting. Nintendo is awful for capitulating like that.

Yeah, what Cordeos said is almost certainly the explanation unless Nick encountered some weird bug (I doubt it). And that ties back into the complaint about how the design of the main menu for this game is atrocious. I figured out what everything is, more or less, but man the game really does not do itself any favors with that design. It reminds me of when I first started playing and that main menu was just bewildering to figure out.

Yeah I agree, TV series are actually worse for the reasons you mentioned. But I didn't make clear in my example that even if the person was like, "oh well you just need to hear this one part" that of course gradually transforms into, "well you should really check out A, B, C, D, E, F, and..." which of course is much more involved than just listening to a song or album, and which leads me to check out.

This looks great, innocent bystanders be damned!

Heh yeah, from the outside it's like watching a reenactment of Aguirre, the Wrath of God, but I guess realistically it is a bunch of campaign staff telling the candidate whatever he/she needs to hear to eke out another couple of paychecks.

That being said, Clinton does receive more media coverage than Sanders, I don't think that is really up for debate. But as the links I posted point out, a lot of that coverage is pretty hostile/awful/shoddy journalism.

He hasn't done any systematic study of it or anything, but Kevin Drum over at MotherJones has pointed out numerous times how the media is unusually critical of Clinton. For example, there is this today: http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/03/correction-day Other instances: http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/02/clinton-derangement-syndrome-alive-and-well http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/07/new-york-times-needs-do-better-job-explaining-its-epic-hillary-clinton-screw

Okay now that I'm listening to the podcast I see the point I made is almost exactly the first thing that comes out of Julian's mouth. I don't have much else to say about why there aren't new games that fill whatever niche Rob & David are looking for because I ran out of room in my closet for board games a long time ago (Rob Daviau can be proud that I did find a way to make room for Pandemic Legacy however). So I don't keep up with new board games anymore, I basically just play the games I already have which is pretty great because I made a point of making sure the games I have aren't similar to one another, and remembering how to play a game goes much more smoothly than learning the rules to a new game. I don't know, are there any board games that have been released in the last year that I'd be crazy not to pick up? I think after you've been playing board games for a few years it makes sense to start whittling your collection down, and just replaying the ones you have.