Take his keyboard away, it's all crap

Disappointment to friends, family.

[robertrites]

Mad-a-critic

The divide between critical opinion and fan opinion on Mad Max has been really interesting to watch as it continues to unfurl, and I think it hints at the so-called “hidden origins” of G*merG*te much clearly than anything else we’ve witnessed in a while. Contrary to what many people might be saying, I refuse to believe there’s a feminist ideology at play here on part of the critics, because it’s categorically ridiculous to rate down a game called Mad MAX on basis of the fact that it doesn’t feature a female protag. Frankly, I don’t think anyone possesses enough lack of self-awareness to trumpet this kind of standard in reviewing a game.

But as always, I have a few thoughts on this matter.

They are as follows:

It seems like a majority of the positive fan reception is coming from Steam users, who have been burned enough times in the past with terrible PC ports, that the mere fact that this game runs buttery-smooth on even older rigs feels like a gratis favor to PC gamers. I wonder what the reception would’ve been like if it run sub-optimally with a 30fps lock?

Critics have played enough open-world games to form an opinion on what constitutes a good open-world game versus a bad one. Watch Dogs was an okay open-world game; Shadow of Mordor was a stellar open-world game. Critics and game journos don’t play games in a vacuum; while their opinions aren’t necessarily more valid than that of gamers, their opinions are nevertheless more informed, not on a mechanical level, but on a market and industry level. To them, when compared to recent offerings like MGSV and Batman Arkham Knight, this game may very well be just okay... hence, the 71 average score (which actually means “above average game,” right?). Doesn’t make their opinion right, but all opinions have to come from somewhere.

It is next to impossible to offer an “objective” review. Full stop. Any angry fan clamoring for an “objective” review basically means, “write a review I agree with.” However, it is entirely possible to give an entirely subjective review backed up by facts and observations about the game, and I think this is where some fans are mad about the whole thing. I’ve read some good reviews, as well as some not-so-good reviews. The Ars Technica review, for example, was a particularly bad piece of critical opinion, as it was (judging by the comments section) stymied by what appears to be a complete misread of the game’s systems and “openness” of the mechanics.

Sidenote: Don’t mean to dredge up the “reviewers should be good at games” argument, and definitely don’t mean to dredge up the comparison to movies, but I can imagine the backlash if a critic panned a Wes Anderson movie for having too many centered shots and an over-reliance on wry, witty dialogue. At that point, any review that relied on those justifications would read like there was an axe to grind. I don’t think I’m being overly dramatic when I say a critic like that is not fit to perform their duty in a professional manner.

So, about that whole “feminist ideology” thing. Again, I don’t think there is an ideology or agenda at play here. Not this time, at least. However, I can see where the PERCEPTION might arise. To use KiA’s favorite whipping [insert non-gendered pronoun here] Polygon as an example, this is a site that wrote no less than 7 or 8 favorable articles and thinkpieces on Mad Max: Fury Road (even more if you include the Buzzfeed-like linkfests pertaining to the movie), with many of said pieces exhibiting a very pro-feminist slant in regards to the portrayal and seemingly central focus on Charlize Theron’s character. Then, when the game, unrelated to the film, mind you, shows up, the site gives it a 5 out of 10, which seems pretty harsh. Or is it? Other than that head-scratchingly low Bayonetta 2 review score they published, Polygon’s writers have always been able to back up their justifications for review scores in a manner I’ve found satisfactory. Yes, that includes that The Last of Us review. I didn’t always agree with them, but I always appreciated them in that they made me think about the games I adored from a completely different perspective. Being able to accept and address opposing viewpoints is a very valuable trait to have, and I wish I learned this earlier on in my life instead of giving into the welcoming throes of knee-jerk rage. Once again, I don’t think there was an agenda at play here, but in my humble opinion, there is a PERCEPTION of agenda-mongering amidst this hubbub. Surely critics could address the PERCEPTION a bit more even-handedly through means other than snarky sub-tweets? Then again, even if they did, it probably wouldn’t be good enough for some folks. Ugh.

At the end of the day, I think it’s safe to say that critics and fans all want different things, maybe more so than before. Call it lazy writing, or call it fan-obsessive and PC Mustard Race elitism, call it whatever you want. But disagreement isn’t unethical. Really, this back-and-forth between journos and gamers is tiresome and immature and totally understandable, if I’m being honest. It’s gotten to the point where the fans, acting as ombudsman to a supposedly voiceless games industry, lash out angrily against journalists, some of whom may or may not possess an “agenda”, and then the journalists respond in turn. It’s all a formality at this point, nothing is ever good enough for each “side,” and fucking hell, it is mentally exhausting to watch.

Me? I’m too busy playing Metal Gear on PC to offer anything else than this cursory post. Maybe I’ll pick Mad Max up when the next Steam sale rolls around. I’m sure it’ll be great--or a piece of shit, depending on who I listen to--but either way, I’m too busy having fun and playing games to worry about that right now.

[askagamedev]

Do you ever feel like the industry is too secretive about what goes on during a game's development?

Secretive to whom? 

If you mean within the development team, there’s usually very little information hiding within the team itself. We generally know what people are working on and we can ask if we don’t. Most of the time it’s a question of what you need to know to do your job, and the rest of the information is there if you want to learn it. 

If you mean between developers, there are plenty of places where developers can share ideas and such. The IGDA chapters have meetings and conferences, and the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) has grown from a single annual event to events in Europe, China, and other places. Obviously, we don’t share proprietary information since we are still working on competing products, but there’s definitely a push to share expertise among developers. Heck, most developers I know are willing to share principles and concepts of what they know if you ask.

But what you probably meant is that developers are secretive about what’s happening with a specific game’s development while it’s going on. There’s a couple of really important reasons why we aren’t more transparent with what’s going on during development.

Keep reading

[tombraider]

Rise of the Tomb Raider Preorder Packs 

We’re kicking off preorders for Rise of the Tomb Raider at Gamescom 2015, detailing some of the unique offerings found at participating retailers around the world.  

You’ll notice that many of these preorder offers include “Card Packs” – a new feature to the Tomb Raider franchise. In Rise of the Tomb Raider you’ll earn cards by completing specific challenges, or discover them in hidden pockets of the environment. Once activated in extra game modes, these cards become modifiers, letting you customize your play experience in a wide variety of ways. Some cards are a bit cheeky, some increase difficultly, and some give you special advantages. Some cards can be used more than once, while some cards are consumable and must be earned again. These cards will offer hundreds of ways to customize your Rise of the Tomb Raider experience and rank higher on the global leaderboards. We’ll provide more details on cards and extra game modes in the future. 

Check out the preorder offerings available in North America below, or via the Xbox hub. We’ll compile a comprehensive international preorder list in the near future, but for now, chat with your local retailer to see what’s available in your territory. 

North American Preorder Offerings

The Apex Predator Pack (GameStop Exclusive in North America) Includes:

The all-new Apex Predator outfit for Lara, with patchwork clothing made of bear fur, animal claws, and scraps of cloth. A dried bloody hand print across Lara’s face completes this intimidating look. The Apex Predator outfit also reduces damage inflicted by animals

The upgradeable Python Hand Cannon, which offers incredible stopping power

A Card Pack including the rare Holy Fire card, which causes enemies killed with melee to burst into flames, damaging and igniting other enemies nearby

The Hope’s Bastion Pack (Amazon) Includes:

The all-new Hope’s Bastion outfit for Lara, with ancient byzantine era chainmail, armor, and tough leather she has gathered from hidden tombs. The Hope’s Bastion outfit also boosts Lara’s charged bow shots

The Wreckoner Battle Axe Skin

A Card Pack including the rare Juggernaut foil card, which gives Lara additional armor with each kill for a limited time

The Sparrowhawk Pack (Best Buy) Includes:

The all-new Sparrowhawk outfit for Lara, crafted from the furs and hides of animals she has hunted. The Sparrowhawk outfit also boosts Lara’s hunting ability

The White Wood Recurve Bow Skin

A Card Pack including the rare Master Hunter foil card, which deals double damage on animals and yields double the resources when hunting

Remnant Resistance Pack (Participating Retailers) Includes:

The all-new Remnant outfit for Lara, which is a collection of animal skins and ancient byzantine armor. The outfit gives Lara a chance to bandage without using her resources.

The Matte Ebony Magnum Skin

The Bullet Resistance foil card, which gives Lara extra damage resistance to gunfire

BONUS: Game UK Steelbook Special

UK retailer Game is offering up a sweet bonus for fans who preorder – a Steelbook Case is included in their Rise of the Tomb Raider Apex Predator Pack, showcased above.

Rise of the Tomb Raider launches on November 10 (Americas & Asia), and November 13 (EMEA), for Xbox One and Xbox 360.

[robertrites]

Um.

[robdelaney]

[thepinkteapot-deactivated201702]

[eltigrechico]

Baltimore

[bisexual-books]

On April 22, 2015, comics retailers far and wide will be selling copies of All-New X-Men #40, which, spoiler, features the coming out of a major character from Marvel Comics’ original five X-Men (sort of): Bobby Drake, AKA Ice Man. On the one hand, I want to be loud and supportive, and to...

[robertrites]

Yes.

[blondeyed]

The funny thing is that the early reviews of the movie were pretty lukewarm, not just from critics but from regular test audiences. Now after this controversy, people are hailing it as the greatest comedy of our generation. It’s also caused a resurgence of those stupid NORTH KOREA BEST KOREA memes. That’s just annoying, though. What makes me angry is that by mocking North Korea, the mockers are reinforcing the DPRK’s state propaganda. If you think the North Korean government is stupid or you see them as toothless cartoon villains, then you’ve already been indoctrinated by it. Hook, line, and sinker. Without getting too much into my personal life, I have close ties with people deeply involved in North Korea. I’ve befriended DPRK defectors and people who have dedicated their lives to dismantling the Kim regime. North Korea is the only Orwellian police state in the world and it has been that way for almost 70 years. Other nations have tried to maintain a government like the DPRK’s in the modern world and failed. The USSR broke apart. Fascist Italy fell. Nazi Germany fell. Gaddafi was ousted and killed. Yet the DPRK endures. People don’t rebel, other countries don’t invade them, and they still receive concessions from the international community even as they continue developing their nuclear program. Stupid governments can’t keep 24.9 million people drinking the Kool Aid and force exponentially more powerful countries into bargaining positions. A large part of why North Korea endures is because they’ve carefully engineered how they want to appear to the West. Horrific things are happening there right now. Some of my friends have been sent to juvenile concentration camps where kids were beaten and raped by the guards. Camps where kids had their feet cut off for attempting to escape. Friends who saw a fresh corpse on the street every day they walked home from school, left to starve to death on the sidewalk because of the Great Famine. Friends who were forced to eat bark to survive, friends who witnessed cannibalism. There is so much information out there about how horrible and dangerous North Korea is but the international community doesn’t receive pressure from their constituents to do anything about it because everyone views North Korea as a joke. That is a very intentional, calculated move by the DPRK government. They are fully aware of how ridiculous and empty their threats sound. Those statements are nothing but propaganda fed to the West. B.R. Myers is one of the world’s foremost scholars of North Korea and he pointed out that North Korea is not very socialist or communist. In fact, if you read the North Korean constitution, you won’t find a single mention of socialism or communism. But they are very Confucian, and a lot of what they talk about in their constitution is aligned with Confucian principles. That also goes for their foreign policy. It’s straight out of the Art of War. To quote Sun Tzu: "If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected." And that’s exactly what North Korea does. They know they can’t possibly withstand a military invasion from a first world power, but at the same time, they can’t risk a policy of close contact because it would compromise the internal propaganda they minister to their citizens. So they make ridiculous threats they can’t possibly carry out. They get angry about comedy movies. They play the role of the tiny man with a huge chip on his shoulder, and the international community responds accordingly. The unspeakable atrocities North Korea is committing against its citizens is overshadowed by the global public perceiving North Korea as a cartoon villain. And when North Korea does do something legitimately dangerous like missile tests in Japanese waters or firing upon submarines, it is without warning, provocation, grandstanding, or boasting. Nothing came of the RKS Cheonan attack because there was no hard evidence that linked it back to the DPRK. Do you think an inept government can pull that off? This is how they control their public image. It’s how they make it clear they are not to be fucked with when they want to be taken seriously, but when they need to relieve international pressure off themselves, they start talking like Darth Vader, and the laughs and mocking that follow work to North Korea’s benefit. Did you know they’re also heavily involved in organized crime? You probably haven’t and you’ll never hear North Korea boasting about it, even though their criminal enterprises are a legitimate threat that causes actual damage overseas. They want to divert people’s attention away from things like Room 39 so they make wild threats they cannot possibly carry out and the international media eats it up. Room 39 is a multibillion dollar criminal enterprise but we have little information about it. People struggle to accept that the DPRK can run operations like this because of the misguided belief that the DPRK is run by boneheads. Look at what the response has been like for their threats about The Interview. The DPRK knows damn well they can’t bomb any American movie theaters. But they used their grand, puffed up threats as propaganda. And it isn’t the first time they’ve indoctrinated the West with idle threats. What’s the response to North Korean news on any popular media website? North Korea Best Korea! ROR! You are now banned from r/pyongyang! Any discussions about the concentration camps or human rights abuses are completely drowned out by stupid memes, stupid memes which exist because North Korea presented itself as an evil empire out of a sci-fi book and the West ate it up. North Korea is already associated with vapid memes in the eyes of young westerners. Now it’ll be associated with a slightly above average comedy movie and hammy threats, playing right into the belief that North Korea like a real-life version of Mordor or the Galactic Empire. When you hear about the Galactic Empire killing trillions of people in Star Wars, you don’t feel anything because it’s exaggerated fiction. On a subconscious level, it’s easy to feel ambivalent towards millions of people being tortured, raped, and starved on a daily basis when you view the oppressing power in the same level of ridiculousness as Darth Vader. But Kim Jong Un is not Emperor Palpatine. The Workers’ Party are not Sith Lords. They are completely sane, flesh-and-blood men and women no different from me or you who torture and imprison regular people. Real people. People who are fathers, daughters, uncles, friends. Imagine if your family lived in a country where one misstep you make could land you and your children in the gulag. If you have daughters, you can expect them to be gang raped by guards. You can expect them to have forced abortions for carrying mixed children. If you have a relative that has special needs, expect them to be executed for polluting the gene pool. When you step back and start deprogramming yourself from the media conditioning that North Korea has been feeding you, it’s not so easy to be so flippant about North Korea, is it? Suddenly it becomes as disturbing as joking about the deaths of Eric Garner and Tamir Rice, or creating memes out of the two NYPD officers who were murdered in cold blood simply for being in uniform. Picture that on a scale magnified by millions and perpetuated every single day. So the fact that the world is congratulating itself for being so witty and edgy for mocking North Korea is what made me angry this week. I’ve seen more outrage against North Korea for bullying Sony into pulling this movie than I have when the UN released its report on North Korean concentration camps. If the world was able to see North Korea soberly as the most brutal dictatorship in the world, it wouldn’t be such a pain in the ass convincing people to get involved. That’s harder to do now that everyone is lapping up the DPRK’s Kool Aid without realizing. Why is this the issue Reddit wants to have protests over? The real way to stick it to North Korea would be to start organizing mass donations to nonprofits dedicated to ending it, making their human rights abuses viral, and starting an online movement that pressure world leaders into breaking the Kim regime. That would actually scare the shit out of the DPRK. TLDR The Interview is out and millions are spending cash on watching it.

Sony & “The Interview” — what’s your take? (via sallydonovan)

[drunkasianhistory]

First, understand the provinces of China:

When people think of China, they all assume that everyone in China is Chinese, speaks Chinese, looks and live like this:

Now let’s look at the Ethnic Make-Up of China!

Look how many Han Chinese there are? But...

[robertrites]

"China has never bothered or invaded anyone, unlike America and all these Western countries."

-Chinese people, including my own family members

[dgaider-deactivated20150130]

Do you ever have to just pinch yourself in the mornings to make sure this is all real? That a game on which YOU have worked is insanely popular and all that? Or has that long-since worn off?

Let’s see how things roll after Tuesday first, shall we? The reviews have been wonderful, but I’m not about to assume that our (relatively rabid) fanbase has the same priorities as game journalists. Chances are pretty good I’ll vanish from the Internet entirely for a while, good or bad, just because the frenzy gets really distracting.

[nprbooks]

This Veterans Day, we bring you images from the lovely children’s book Coming Home, by Greg Ruth — an almost wordless meditation on the bonds of family, love and duty. Ruth sent us this essay about the book and what inspired it:

For me as a citizen, Veterans Day is about remembering the personal connection we all have to our service men and women, from every generation. It’s to remind me that families serve alongside the soldier that deploys for long missions away. That families feel the brunt of the loss when the soldiers don’t always return home, and to remember the cost to all of us when we neglect the essential value of service. Especially for those who rush headlong into danger in our names and for our own families. However the shape of war and combat may change, the core ethos of service remains a base, underpinning all the generations which stand, fall and rise together, whether it directly effects our lives or not. Our veterans are everywhere, in all aspects of our lives. They are our neighbors, friends, and family and what they do, they do in our names. We can only begin to truly honor our vets by rising to meet them when they return, and remembering to make ourselves worthy of their service by remembering them each and every year. 

— Petra

[natclia]

I’m one of twenty-eight ballerinas with the Bolshoi. The training is hard, but the glory of Soviet culture—and the warmth of my parents—my… parents… makes up for… No. No… that’s not right…. 

[ungaming]

I was having a conversation with a fairly polite gamergater. They asked me a bunch of questions and I asked if I could reply with a tumblr post instead of a hundred tweets, so this is that post. There was an ongoing conversation before this point, which you should be able to find via the links...

[robertrites]

This is an excellent, fair, and level-headed refutation of many points raised by the sane and genuinely concerned members of gamergate. A rational response like this gives me hope that there will be, after all of the shouting, trolling, and general wretchedness of this whole affair, actual dialogue between both sides. I'm still straddling the middle of both sides (with one of my legs perhaps dangling towards the #gamergate side, as toxic as that association may very well and deservedly be), but I'm interested in more posts like this getting more recognition over the sound and fury.

Thank you, Brendan.

[vgjunk]

I finally hacked my way through enough of Crossed Swords to get a GIF of mighty warrior and unofficial VGJunk mascot Satan Goat.

[obscurevideogames]

Crossed Swords (SNK/ADK- Neo Geo - 1990)

[gameraboy]

Filming the opening space battle for Star Wars.

[michaelbjordan-news]

[robertrites]

This made my morning. The most delightful "suck it, fanboys" I have ever seen. He was great on The Wire, great in Chronicle, and I'm sure he'll be just as great as Johnny Storm.

[robertrites]

Kissing vs. killing: How Shadow of Mordor fails at explaining the difference

I get what Zach Gage was trying to say, and I agree with his overall message that games should strive for more when trying to hit those admittedly abstract mechanically-driven emotional undertones in controls. That being said, I do think everyone's mileage with said tutorial sequence may vary, and in my humble opinion, Gage's particular choice of target was a little off in this case.

So, I like it when games keep actions mechanically consistent but emotionally diverse because it makes key moments stand out that much more. Where I disagree with Gage is that I felt the stealth-kiss sequence actually manages to characterize Talion more as well as provide a brutal contrast to his life prior to and after his family's slaughter, and here's what I mean: 

One thing Gage's piece failed to touch on is what the kiss meant when used in the narrative framing of a flashback. After the player "passes" this stealth sequence and plants a kiss on Ioreth's cheek, they quickly find out that Talion and Ioreth are still caught in an ongoing domestic dispute. Ioreth fears for the safety of the family at the Black Gate and wonders when they can finally leave. Meanwhile, the best Talion can muster is the same half-hearted excuse his wife is likely all too used to hearing by now: "Soon."

We come to understand that this is how Talion sneakiness comes with purpose: it's how he solves his problems in his life, be it when plunging his dagger into an Uruk's neck unseen, or when trying to ineffectually placate his wife in the midst of a quarrel. That one instance where Talion sneaks up to kiss his wife is the first as well as the last time the player ever performs this action in this particular context. Each subsequent, non-scripted instance of sneaking up on someone involves robbing them of their life. There's no one left for Talion to sneak up to in a playful manner anymore, only targets that need to be put down, and I think the designers at Monolith succeeded admirably by providing the very same stark contrast that Gage is questioning.

I have tons of respect for Zach Gage as I'm a longtime fan of his creative output, but I can't help feeling he's just a little off with this piece. Then again, like I said, your mileage may vary with this one.

[felassan]

[robertrites]

This is a bit of an apples-to-oranges thing, isn't it? I get that Aaryn Flynn was antagonized randomly by some chucklehead on Twitter (by way of Mike Laidlaw), but it's not really an apt comparison. You can call out games for not having enough diversity or character customization options, but in this case, The Witcher is based on an existing series of Polish novels, and... you know what, forget it.

Since when did social progressiveness = sneering, contemptuous strawmen for the sake of scoring moral points? Sometimes, I'm glad video games is such an insular industry on all fronts; we should be glad that the toxicity of flame-baiting and immaturity of vaunted professionals hasn't seeped into other industries, like cinema. We'd rather read about the production timeline of an independent film than read about pissing matches between Quentin Tarantino and, say, Gregg Araki, right?