Bjorn

Wasteland 2 and Torment have provided really extensive text updates, sometimes having multiple essays by different developers in a single update.

Oddly enough, I remap keys on my keyboard and mouse for productive uses WAY more than I do for games. I've got multiple macros that get used for work all the time, and some oddball commands tied to the extra buttons on my mouse.

What if it was a system's driven game where you were god, and had the power to request/require a weird variety of things from your followers? As time goes on and your idle whims get codified into a religion, you get to see what the results are. If you're too inconsistent, your followers lose faith in you and your power decreases. But a player may end up uncomfortable playing the role that the have defined for themselves due to unintended consequences. A God game unlike any that has come before. This actually feels like how Christianity developed. Player: Ha, wouldn't it be funny if I ordered my most loyal follower to sacrifice his son!? Oh shit, he's really going to do it. No, no, no, no, no! Jesus comes about because the player realizes that they are a terrible monster and tries to shift the religion towards something radically different, with a bunch of unintended consequences and a permanent schism between the old and new religions.

Isn't that system mostly a reflection of being the leading edge of the KS revolution? In hindsight, having more than just backers involved makes a lot of sense. But 2 years ago, promising all that as exclusive to people willing to blindly give you money also seemed like a brilliant way to get them to pay then.

I'm terribly at picking GOTYs, there are too many great games I don't get around to playing. Gone Home, Spelunky, Don't Stave, Enemy Within and Gunpoint have all been highlights for me this year. Each of those delivered a pretty radically different experience, and I would be hard pressed to hold one up above the others. On the IT list, it's funny that Dark Souls made their honorable mentions for 2013. It's also interesting how many of their GOTY list I haven't actually heard discussed on the podcast. Like, Spelunky, the guys never talk about it.

I've been laughing at that for about 5 minutes now.

#TeamYeti

My work here is done, time to go dancing.

Will it have achievements? Achievement Earned for finishing Lot's sidequests! 2 girls 1 dad

I'm an episode behind as well. I guess I know what I'm listening to at work tomorrow.

No offense taken at all. I'd actually thought of a hell on earth joke in regards to burning when that story popped in my head and I bummed myself out. Shit, I just imagined an Oregon Trail section of the game, traveling across the desert: Jeremiah has dysentary Pray for Jeremiah Jeremiah died Okay, maybe I can joke about it, after having taken a deep breath and accepted that I'm a terrible person.

I just discovered that there is no /wizard page on goty.cx. I am disappoint.

Easy to joke about, but it's the kind of thing that actually happens. Particularly faith in god's plan. A reporter in Idaho found evidence of at least 10 children that have died in the last 2 years because of their parent's faith in god. Idaho still allows negligent parents to claim religious faith as a defense when they kill their children. Most other states don't do that, and will prosecute parents in extreme cases. Like a couple who let two kids die within 2 years of one another. Total deaths are unknown, as many of these believers live in small communities and mostly just interact with other people like them. Sorry to be a downer, these people just piss me off too much to joke about.

Congrats on another award! That piece also reminded me of how much I miss getting Chris Grant's perspective on a regular basis. The old Joystiq Podcast is the only show that rivaled the Idle Thumbs for me in regards to gaming.

Didn't Namco botch the release of DaS1 with some confusing info, or by changing the Collector's Edition at the last minute or something?

Also colloquially referred to as joy.

I'm more likely to read a review of a game that I've played than one that I haven't, to get another perspective on it. I mostly avoid reviews for games I want to play, other than maybe skimming the first and last paragraph of a reviewer I really respect to get a basic impression. And yeah, non-backers can't buy it for 2 more weeks, so it's not like he needs to get that burning hot review into their hands now. He's being personally inconvenienced, and wanted to complain to the internet about it. That's why I said whiny and privileged.

Most of the advertising I had seen showed Black Armor only for the console releases, and Amazon has never had a boxed PC copy for sale, only a Steam code. Unfortunately no change on release date. The Namco YouTube account clarifies in the comments: Oh, and that's the European YouTube account, so dates may be slightly different in other regions. Edited to add: The official DaS2 site only shows preorders available for PS3/360, and the official Namco store does not have an option for a PC pre-order either. Not to say that you can't preorder it, but so far I hadn't seen a reliable source say that there was even going to be a boxed PC release.

The RPS piece on it is interesting. On one hand, they rightly point out that the game feels designed for tablets, and that explains much of the simplified interface (very likely true, and a bit frustrating). But in the original version of the story (still there, but struckthru), Walker comes off sounding a bit whiny and privileged about how he's not allowed to write more about it. I thought it was clear that the embargo was to give backers an early chance to play the game before every major news site was writing reviews of it. You know, as a reward to the people who funded the game.

Just saw that this went up on early access on Steam. Man, that trailer looks incredible. I've been jonesing for a Burnout type experience.

Actually finished a Classic Ironman playthrough last night for the first time! Lost one Assault during the final mission. Fucking Sectopods. Overall I do feel like Enemy Within made the game easier, as did using the Second Wave options Not Created Equal, Hidden Potential and Training Roulette. My best sniper ended up with a natural Aim of 124. With a Scope on, that meant that even an enemy in full cover was nearly a guaranteed hit. Going to take a break from it now, though I am tempted to start up an Impossible game at some point and see how ridiculous that is.

I'd be surprised if they broke balance that much and there wasn't somewhere relatively early with a decent chance of getting humanity. Since it only takes one humanity to fully recharge your health, it's not like you would need dozens of humanity to counteract dozens of deaths.

Woah, that trailer showed a Black Armor PC edition at the end of it! That's the first time they've shown that I think.

Got about an hour into it last night. It's funny, pretty, and charming. I hope I warm up more to it though, it hasn't really hooked me yet into buying into the world. Which is not usually a problem I have with DF games.