Worth Reading: 11/09/12

@theanticitizen said:

Case in point:

Cortana gets bitchy and insecure. She blames her mood swings on rampancy. That’s apparently a thing. Rampancy. An AI thing. It was better when Shodan and GlaDOS did it. Also, AIs have a lifespan, like replicants. Didn’t you know that? In case you didn’t, Halo 4 is telling you now. By the way, Halo 4 says, AIs have a life span.

Tom knows literally nothing about the series! Rampancy has a been a huge part of Halo since day 1. Bungie has always made that clear. It was part of Halo before Halo even existed -_________- oh Tom.

Actually, rampancy was a concept in Marathon. Yes, the original. For that matter, the backbone of that series' story was the idea of an AI going rampant.

@patrickklepek : Speaking of Marathon, would that be a good game for Spookin' with Scoops? It's very much an atmospheric shooter that somewhat competed with System Shock 1 back in the day, though I don't know how scary it was considered then and it isn't really scary now. It's also free.

Ya I appreciated Tom Chicks Review for what it is too. It's actually nice to see someone with a dissenting opinion, shame it's apparently not allowed.

Love this feature Patrick, thanks for this.

@patrickklepek The content of QTR's review was fine, but do you really think the game deserves a 1/5, a 20/100, etc. from anyone? Wouldn't a one of five basically mean the game is broken and unplayable? Furthermore, QTR is on metacritic, and whatever anyone's stance is on the site, there's a precedent for docking developer bonuses if the aggregate score is below a certain level. I think this is a serious issue, and I think that that slapping a completely serviceable game with a 20% score that's aggregated on the site is just a dick move. I doubt Microsoft will have any issues with 343i since the game is selling like hotcakes, but I think Mr. Chick was being a bit of a dick with the numerical score. His written arguments hold water, but that score is silly.

As always man, some good reading.... Thanks...

I found Tom's review fairly poor. It touched upon the reasons I knew from announcement I wasn't going to buy it, but it did so without passion or polish. I felt more vehemence than honest and personal analysis.

Case in point:

Cortana gets bitchy and insecure. She blames her mood swings on rampancy. That’s apparently a thing. Rampancy. An AI thing. It was better when Shodan and GlaDOS did it. Also, AIs have a lifespan, like replicants. Didn’t you know that? In case you didn’t, Halo 4 is telling you now. By the way, Halo 4 says, AIs have a life span.

Tom knows literally nothing about the series! Rampancy has a been a huge part of Halo since day 1. Bungie has always made that clear. It was part of Halo before Halo even existed -_________- oh Tom.

Sapience's video takes some definite inspiration from the video that plays in Super Metroid if you let it sit there at the title screen. I love Super Metroid, and your description of Sapience already had me interested, so now I'm pretty damn interested in it.

Im hooked on Halo, I played Reach for a Sad Amount Of Time and 4 is just more Halo + some. There are some things that bother me, but the great thing about this is 343 like bungie collects Data like crazy and can fix weapon strength and add more playlist and remove them. Like Reach ill probably be playing this for a long time. This story was kind of crazy but as a relatively up to Halo Lore dude it sets up some things but leaves other thing in the dust. Hopefully they revamp completely for next gen halo.

Fuck yeahhhh Distance!! That game looks sick. I'm all for a return to the Rush 2049 days.

That review is terrible because it does nothing but compare the game to other media. There is no critiquing of the game on it's own merits. I'm sorry if you disagree, but I think Jeff did a much better job weighing what he felt was a letdown and what was solid about the game. Tom's review is only based on the narrative, not on the gameplay or the mechanics. For this reason I feel his review a colossal failure and bigger letdown than the game itself. I don't care if he thinks it's a 1/5 game, just don't spend a whole paragraph telling me you don't like it because it looks too much like Tron.

That Halo review is beautiful.

Tricky Scoops. Bringing the Scoops.

If all goes according to plan, I’ll pull the trigger on ordering parts for my computer over the weekend, and finally put into motion an idea I’ve been kicking around for a couple of years now. It’s been so, so long since I’ve built a PC, though, so I’ve forgotten...everything. I’ve heard your requests, too, and we’ll probably film putting it together and bringing it to life. Nothing can go wrong with that, right?

As mentioned in the last episode of Spookin’ With Scoops, where we played the first hour or so of System Shock 2, that feature will take a rest until the PC comes together, which means it probably won’t come back until after Thanksgiving. Even with a powerful PC, that doesn’t mean we’ll leave behind a return to Lone Survivor, System Shock 2, or even Friday the 13th and Clock Tower for SNES. It will, however, mean closing out episodes with Slender won’t look like a total trainwreck.

A few weeks away from horror will do my heart some good, too. You can only take so much.

Hey, You Should Play This

• Save the Day by Denki (Browser / Free) -- www.turbulenz.com/games/save-the-day/play

It’s early days for browser games, but Save the Day, a fast-paced action game in which players fly a helicopter and save people from imminent disaster, make a solid case for what’s possible when competent developers are in the drivers seat. It doesn’t have to be all exploitative free-to-play games that are more about wasting time than they are about learning and enjoying game mechanics. Let’s also remember Supergiant Games managed to port Bastion to Chrome’s app store on HTML5. It’ll be some time before we’re seeing a game like Bastion made from the ground up for a browser, but the potential audience is enormous, and it’s only a matter of time before someone makes a killing.

There are also two other games I’m going to link to below, and I’ll say nothing more about them.

• I Don't Know What To Call This But Just Click It, Okay? (Browser / Free) -- detarou.web.fc2.com/game/ohayo.html
• Reel Railway (Browser / Free) -- www.realrailway.com/en/

And You Should Read These, Too

• "Halo 4 is half the game it should be" by Tom Chick for Quarter to Three

What do you want from your reviews? Do you want someone to reaffirm your preconceived notions about a game, or do you want to be challenged, and look at a game in a new light? Tom Chick’s review of Halo 4 would probably do a better job of accomplishing the latter if a score wasn’t attached, but the score is what made his review a lightning rod. Chick is used to being the industry’s punching bag, and publishing contradictory opinions is nothing new. I haven’t yet played Halo 4, so I can’t say whether or not I agree with his conclusions about the latest entry, but it’s a well articulated argument, and definitely an outlier from the general consensus. Does that make it wrong? (Hint: no.)

This is Halo 4. A shiny old dog without any new tricks. I got more out of the Halo 1 remake, which at least had the appeal of nostalgia. Playing through an updated version of the original Halo was at times tired or tedious. But it was also a reminder of the raw genius that launched the series. There is none of that in Halo 4, which is a drawn-out retread without any fresh perspective or energy, and furthermore missing a lot of what I need to pull me through a Halo game. Halo 4 demonstrates that if there’s one thing worse than more of the same, it’s less of the same.

• "How Ubisoft kept the lid on Assassin's Creed III's biggest spoiler" by Kyle Orland for Ars Technica

Games have trouble keeping secrets these days, and whatever you think of Assassin’s Creed III, it’s admirable the company was able to keep a lid on a particularly cool twist that comes early in the game. If you haven’t played Assassin’s Creed III, you should not click this link, but if you have, Ars Technica has talked to Ubisoft about the process of keeping a secret over a three-year development cycle and huge amounts of marketing. Not easy!

May says he didn't even discuss the big reveal with his closest friends or family—he just "couldn't take the risk." While he could talk about [CENSORED] with other members of the development team, that didn't really relieve the stress. "All we would end up doing was riling ourselves up. We were on thisthing, and we were all having the same fears and anxious nervous anticipation. That didn't make it any easier."

If You Click It, It Will Play

I Don’t Know About This Kickstarter Thing, But These Projects Seem Pretty Cool

• Elite is the latest classic trying to come back. Would be nice if they showed, uh, anything about it.
• We need more physical spaces to show off video games. L.A. Game Space could be terrific.
• Wait, is Distance a spiritual successor to San Francisco Rush?

The Latest Assassin's Creed is Out, And There Are Mixed Opinions

• John Teti of Gameological can't muster many good things to say about Assassin's Creed III.
• Despite Kotaku running a positive review from another writer, Kirk Hamilton is disillusioned.

Valve Just Launched Greenlight, So Here’s Some Games That Don’t Look Terrible

• Dark Rain looks awfully early, but an open world horror game with a day/night cycle? Yes.
• Draw a Stickman has players getting involved by actually drawing objects into the world.
• Sapience is a modern attempt to create a DOOM-style sci-fi RPG. Those are golden words.

Oh, And This Other Stuff

• An interesting analysis of why GoldenEye 007 should have been a colossal failure.
• Polygon does a deep dive on the creation of the Skylanders games at Toys For Bob.
• Brendan Keogh is writing an entire book of critical analysis about Spec Ops: The Line.
• A developer talks about Nintendo's approach to encourages indies towards Wii U.
• My former boss, Stephen Totilo, uses Kotaku to provide a deep analysis of modern games journalism.
• A designer argues for easier achievements when thinking of a wider audience.
• The success and influence of Canabalt has escaped even its creator.
• Spelunky designer Derek Yu has created his interpretation of Battletoads...and it's fucking awesome.
• Obama and Romney supporters go into battle in Medieval II.
• A collection of pixelated t-shirts representing different states. Wish Illinois wasn't sold out in my size.
• An interesting analysis of the huge decisions facing Sony with its next machine.