Schazzwozzer

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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    7
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About Schazzwozzer

  • Rank
    A Bullfrog
  • Birthday 07/06/1983

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Portland, OR
  • Interests
    Add the freshly cooked and drained macaroni into the casserole along with the sliced hot dogs and just 2 cups of the cheese; mix well.

Contact Methods

  • Steam
    Schazzwozzer

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  • Occupation
    Game Developer
  1. Project Eternity, Obsidian's Isometric Fantasy RPG

    RPS's review ends with: "It’s a triumph. A wonderful, enormous and spellbinding RPG, gloriously created in the image of BioWare’s Infinity classics, but distinctly its own. A classic in every sense." All the other reviews I've skimmed have been similarly enthusiastic. Bet there are some happy people at Obsidian today. I won't be starting for a few days at least, but I'm eager to see how I feel about this game. I was never actually a huge fan of the Infinity engine gameplay—I preferred the discrete turn-based decisions of Fallout at the time—but perhaps absence makes the heart grow fonder. Regardless, what I really backed this game for is to see Obsidian's writing and world-crafting run free. Now I just gotta figure out what my character will be. Anyone better versed with PoE's ruleset know what the equivalent of a D&D cleric is? Their priest class sounded a little squishy... My recollection is that Baldur's Gate 2 was developed wholly in Edmonton (by Bioware), but published under Black Isle, since they were Interplay's RPG division. At the time, Black Isle was developing Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale, using the same engine.
  2. Dune

    Incidentally, I finished listening to Dune just earlier today and can report that there's an excellent edition on Audible. Simon Vance narrates and it's an absolutely terrific performance. So, you know, audiblepodcast.com/wizard and all that j/k I don't think that's still a thing anymore. It was my first time with the book, and it really is a fascinating one. I was a bit surprised to find that, at its core is a somewhat by-the-numbers hero's journey. It's so wildly creative and richly textured though that I was happy to go along for the ride, and to be fair, while there is plenty of power fantasy... The best part is indeed the worldbuilding though. Perhaps I just don't read enough good sci-fi, but realizing that this is a setting where... and it was very gratifying to slowly piece all of this together and build a mental model for what the hell was going on with this setting. No wonder it's inspired so many outlandish adaptations over the years. I'm unsure if I'll read any more of the series though, just because I dislike big time commitments. I'll be interested to see what others who are just now reading the series think though.
  3. Idle Thumbs 163: A B C D E3

    Finished listening to the episode this morning, and I think I get what Chris was referring to with his "boardgame for children" analogy for Splatoon and some of Nintendo's other original works. FlingSmash, a 2010 Wii game in which you fling a character around the screen and smash obstacles, is the foremost example in my mind. Some others: Steel Diver (you're a submarine), Fossil Fighter (pokemon with fossil-hunting), Excite Trucks & Excitebots (racing games with trucks and robots respectively), Battalion Wars (3d action game based on Advance Wars), Rhythm Heaven (collection of rhythm minigames), Drill Dozer (you use a drill to dig), Custom Robo (I bet you customize a robot). A lot of them are actually solid games, so I hear, but there's something disposable in how Nintendo of America chooses to name and market them. They've also published some questionably-named digital-only 3DS games recently, like Dillon's Rolling Western, Kersploosh!, Sakura Samurai, and Ketzal's Corridors. Yeah, I dunno.
  4. The IGN article says that Firewatch is set after the Yellowstone Fires of 1988. I love this sort of thing. Too few games leverage the richness of the real world, or if they do, it rarely informs the characters, events, tone in a serious way. Thinking back, Jake and Sean have been pretty excellent at this in their past work — the Deep South in Walking Dead, Minnesota in Puzzle Agent (fake town, sure, but I loved the sense of place), etc. And damn, Olly's concept art. I hope they can make the in-game art match. I imagine that's why they're hiring a rendering/shader programmer.
  5. Look at all that sweet Metal Gear Solid talk. I am pumped. However, it would be appreciated if someone could describe the extent of Republique spoilers. I'm waiting on the PC version.
  6. Just heard the news. Best of luck to ya, Chris. Very exciting time, no doubt. Wherever you end up, I hope we're able to follow your career to some degree. I expect great things. Mostly moon sims.
  7. Idle Thumbs 36: Shambling, Goofy

    I think I know exactly the art style that you guys were talking about vis a vis the C&C4 art; I've a graphic designer friend who's a huge fan of '70s sci-fi and fantasy [his flickr]. Exquisite rendering of light gradation, paired with this strange, flat coloration, that makes everything look sort of musty and washed-out. Unfortunately, I'm inclined to think that the C&C4 artist just wanted to suggest that the topmost ship is in the distant background, up in the planet's atmosphere, rather than demonstrative of a drastic new art direction. Which would be a bit of a shame, if true.