A tech tree should be a game’s skeleton, giving it its shape. And since a tech tree is variable, it should create distinct shapes. These choices will make this kind of game; those choices will make that kind of game. A tech tree is a way to let a game design itself as it’s played. A latticework of possibilities, different every time. Clockwork Wars is my favorite example of a tech tree in a boardgame.
After the jump, wait, there are tech trees in boardgames?Continue reading →
When I spoke with Julian Gollop shortly after the release of Chaos Reborn, I politely but insistently asked him not to add more spells. The game is a wonderfully self-contained gem in an era of cloying post-release support that piles on avalanches of DLC. Chucking new stuff into the mix would mess up Chaos Reborn’s fundamental concept of fewer more meaningful pieces. Do you think the original Chaos got any add-ons, new units, DLC, or update packs?
Gollop didn’t listen to me. Today’s update adds four new spells.
Two of them, bolt tower and paralyze, seem awfully shy. I ran through several games and didn’t see hide nor hair of them. I suspect one shoots bolts and the other paralyzes things. I did, however, see the Icarus tower. It’s a mechanical horse-bird with a stone tower on its back that will automatically try to shoot down incoming flying units. Now those pesky eagles aren’t so pesky.
As for the fourth spell, zombies… Well, let’s just say if I’d known Gollop was going to add zombies to Chaos Reborn, I would have asked him to hurry up and get to it. Every game needs zombies and Chaos Reborn is no exception. The zombies come in hordes, of course. When you cast the spell, you get two of them. And when one of them kills another creature, that creature becomes an undead version of itself under your control. Given that Chaos Reborn makes undead immune to nonmagical attacks — think of it as a way of having to put one in the brain — zombies that build up a little momentum are a serious threat.
We should know by now what videogames can and can’t do as a medium. When they’re not aping movies, they can tell riveting environmental stories in contained settings with gratifying payoffs (Gone Home, Bioshocks 1 and 2, Portal). In the context of gameplay, they can use animation, voice acting, and writing to establish effective relationships among characters (Uncharted, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Grand Theft Auto V). They can create a sense of mystery (Myst and a hundred other games).
What they can’t do is what Firewatch is attempting.
You might not have even heard of this movie. There’s a reason for that. At the one-hour mark, we dip into a conversation about our favorite scenes of people getting wet.
I’m delighted to discuss The Witness with Matt Peckham from Time.com and Stephen Totilo from Kotaku, both of whom loved The Witness, a game I didn’t like. The model for our discussion is the latest Republican debates. I’ll be playing the role of Donald Trump. Peckham plays Jeb Bush and Totilo plays Marco Rubio. None of us was willing to play Ted Cruz.
What’s the big deal about doing a movie all in one take? That’s how we do all our podcast. At the 3×3, we decide not to have a 3×3 starting at the 1:02+ mark. Wait, that would be a terrible prank because then the listeners wouldn’t send in any picks.
I’m looking at a puzzle. I’m considering how to solve it. I’m pretty sure there’s no way to solve it. Literally no way to solve it. It simply can’t work. It’s nonsense. It’s clearly impossible. You might as well ask me to make two plus two equal five. But then something clicks, suddenly and decisively. A Copernican shift introduces itself into a simple set of inviolable rules. The center has moved and now everything turns into something else entirely. It feels like a miracle of geometry, of logic, like oh, hey, a fourth dimension has opened up where a wall used to be. Maybe Newtonain shift is a better way to put it. What seemed impossible is now as simple as letting gravity take an apple.
These are the best parts of The Witness. And, to be fair, they’re fairly frequent. Regular even. But to what end?
After the jump, ssentiW ehT, dnalsi na, nalp a, man a.Continue reading →
I’m a sucker for Euro Truck Simulator. I’m also American, which means I’m probably going to be a sucker for American Truck Simulator, despite the fact that it was scaled down from American Truck Simulator to West Side of America Only Truck Simulator. But even I have a hard time taking the above launch trailer seriously. It’s like a beer commercial that never gets around to mentioning the beer it’s supposed to be about.
This week it’s a conversation with the creator of a snappy and brutal two-player deck builder on Kickstarter. I’m not usually eager to talk about games that aren’t even available yet, but that changed after I played the prototype for Karmaka. I also recommend my favorite two-player under-a-half-hour games.
Really, the main reasons I’m writing this is so I can use that headline. It’s not even that good of a headline. It’s certainly not accurate. But I couldn’t resist. Today’s patch just makes Boba Fett’s wrist rocket less powerful. But his mobility still gives him an enormous advantage. Have you tried to hit a flying Boba Fett? I have and it’s not easy, let me tell you. And don’t get me started on Slave One in the fighter squadron matches! To be fair, the patch did strip Boba Fett’s ship of 30% its hit points. And the Millennium Falcon. Now they’re only 70% of the bullet sponges they used to be.
The more relevant changes in the patch are nerfs to the DL-44, aka Han Solo’s pistol; the bowcaster, aka Chewbacca’s crossbow thing that Han Solo apparently didn’t notice until Force Awakened; the ION anti-vehicle torpedo, aka the thing that makes AT-STs one of the quickest ways to give the other team points; and the homing shot and smart rocket, aka the things that always kill you from out of nowhere.
The patch also adds daily challenges, which is all I need. Yet another reason to keep playing what turned out to be last year’s best shooter. Electronic Arts has even announced the upcoming content will add more support for the excellent split-screen and single player challenges. How much was that season pass again?
98% of critics can’t be wrong. So why don’t we love Brooklyn? What’s our problem? Sheesh. At the 58-minute mark, we walk you through a discussion of movie footware for this week’s 3×3.
If there was one thing better than Firaxis smartly streamling X-Com with XCOM, it was John Lumpkin and Rachel Norma smartly deepening and expanding that streamlining with their ambitious Long War mod. One of my reservations about the impending release of XCOM 2 in a few weeks is that it will take a while for cool mods like Long War to catch up with the sequel.
Except that — surprise! — it won’t. Firaxis announced today that designer Lumpkin, programmer Norma, and their artist James Karlson have already been working on XCOM 2. Furthermore, they’re far enough along that “multiple mods” will be available when the game launches. Firaxis will release more details about these mods on January 30th at a PAX South panel in Texas.
XCOM 2 will be out on February 5th for PCs. There are currently no plans for a console version. Ha ha.
So this is something that happened. Tom Chick and Jason McMaster faithfully recreate the greatest hits of videogaming in 2015. After the show, stick around for a bit of Starcraft II, Grim Dawn, Homeworld: Some Stuff in the Desert, and Darkest Dungeon.
This week we see the movie that tried to give the latest Star Wars a run for its money. After 58 minutes, we slap into the podcast a discussion about our favorite reloading scenes in movies.
Also, our Sort of Annual Fund Drive is in effect! For each dollar you donate between now and 9pm PST February 21, you get a vote for whatever movie you want us to watch for the February 28th podcast. Donate here or use the button to the right and be sure to specify the movie you’re voting for. We’ll draw the winner randomly on the February 21 podcast.
Join Tom Chick for a chat with the director of Tharsis, a strategy game about flying a disastrously unreliable ship to Mars that isn’t even called the Tharsis.
