Saturday!

Jaybird

Jaybird is Birdmojo on Xbox Live and Jaybirdmojo on Playstation's network. He's been playing consoles since the Atari 2600 and it was Zork that taught him how to touch-type. If you've got a song for Wednesday, a commercial for Saturday, a recommendation for Tuesday, an essay for Monday, or, heck, just a handful a questions, fire off an email to AskJaybird-at-gmail.com

Related Post Roulette

28 Responses

  1. Glyph says:

    Apropos of nothing, I saw Fury Road again last night.

    On second viewing, it’s maybe even more shiny and chrome, since you can catch your breath and look for detail (though the one bit of un-needed CGI still rankles – why there?! I mean, YEAH, that particular exact shot couldn’t’ve been gotten without it, but you don’t NEED that exact one.) Seriously, that is a good movie, with lots of powerful, primal imagery (also, I noticed what seem like a couple homages to the original Star Wars).Report

  2. Kolohe says:

    Alternatively, the dog is the player character and the Vault Dweller is a NPC Companion.

    But really, didn’t the trailer for 3 (which was even on TV) do the same thing? You’re not paying Hellboy on a Bike *not* to talk, after all.Report

    • Jaybird in reply to Kolohe says:

      Okay, I watched it again. The E3 trailer for Fallout 3 did end with Vault Dweller and Dogmeat walking off into the distance but Vault Dweller didn’t say anything.

      But in rewatching the one for Fallout 4, I notice how, yeah, it does start with a nice “vintage” song but that’s quickly replaced with grand and swelling orchestral music.

      Which is *ANOTHER* thing that makes me worry.Report

      • James K in reply to Jaybird says:

        @jaybird

        Fallout 3, and to a lesser extent New Vegas, used the orchestral stuff for non-radio music. Admittedly you wouldn’t notice that if you were in the habit of leaving your radio on.Report

      • North in reply to Jaybird says:

        I never got into Fallout after #2. The real time did me in. Had no interest.Report

        • Jaybird in reply to North says:

          I might suggest that you try just one more time and experiment with the Pip-Boy.

          You can set it so that it automatically pauses when you get in combat and see your enemy and what it is that you can hit and it gives you the same percentages that you know and love.

          And if they’re behind a bush, then you can unpause for a second, move a bit, then try again.

          And if you’re out of action points, you can yell “WOOP WOOP WOOP” and run around until your points regenerate.

          If you hadn’t experimented with that, know this: IT CHANGES THE GAME.

          Of course, if you had experimented with it, that’s a bummer.Report

  3. Will Truman says:

    Related to the Featured Image, we had to go a medical clinic yesterday (everything’s fine). Even though we weren’t going for Lain, she was pretty edgy. The thing that calmed her down? That game that she’s playing on the image. She loves that game.Report

  4. greginak says:

    Has anyone played the Kerbal Space Program game? I haven’t bought a game in years but that one sounds fun and educational. What could be better than that.Report

    • Jaybird in reply to greginak says:

      One of the things that I’ve seen in relation to Kerbal is that one of the guys who played it built an Orbit Analysis server to help with some of the missions he was doing. Like a separate box that he hooked up to his computer whose job it was to do math.

      Which tells me that, as educational games go, this is not entry-level educational.Report

    • Don Zeko in reply to greginak says:

      The learning curve is pretty intense, but it’s not quite so bad as @jaybird ‘s comment might make you think. Unlike with real rocket science, trial and error works, plus you can get mods like Mechjeb that give you a general idea of things like “will I have enough fuel to get home” without having to do any of the math yourself. Also, jesus christ, steam says I’ve put 432 hours into the game. Yay unemployment!Report

    • Fish in reply to greginak says:

      Kerbal is a lot of fun, but can be pretty challenging. I met a guy at Denver Comicon who runs a Kerbal Space Academy, so if you’re struggling (like I do) there are resources out there to help.Report

    • Fish in reply to greginak says:

      I downloaded and installed the latest version of XCOM: Long War this past weekend. I haven’t put much time into it yet, but already I can see that thr devs have made significant changes since the last time I played. Seems like they’ve toned down the difficulty a bit so it’s nice and challenging instead of just gut-punch after gut-punch. I’ll let you know what happens after the first month is over.Report

  5. Hoosegow Flask says:

    I was a bit underwhelmed with the Fallout 4 trailer. Based on just that, it feels like FO4 is going to be more of the same. With The Elder Scrolls, the change in setting between Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim were quite significant. Fallout just has the same drab, brown landscape with sparse vegetation (albeit without the green tint of FO3 this time). Perhaps there will be something new in the gameplay with the scripted protagonist, but I expect it’ll mostly stick to the (wildly popular and successful) formula.

    I’ve been playing Witcher 3. It’s a good game and runs well for me, despite having to disable Geralt’s silky, flowing locks. The story has always been the big driver for me in the series. I’m a bit disappointed to find that the choices from previous games don’t have as much of an impact as I would like. And the number of options even in the first zone induced a bit of decision paralysis. If I don’t do these side quests now before advancing the main plot, will I be able to do them later? Can I sell these looting swords I’m lugging around or do I need to spend my limited funds having the smith break them down into crafting materials? I’ve put in a couple dozen hours already and still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. I fear I may burn out on the game before I run out of content or even get through the main storyline.Report

    • Jaybird in reply to Hoosegow Flask says:

      The “more of the same” (or “MOTS”) criticism is a criticism that makes sense to me only if the same that it was more of did not leave you saying “wow… what a freaking great game… now I have to play it again…”.

      I mean, seriously, I played Fallout 3 through the good playthrough, through the evil playthrough, through the neutral playthrough, and then again through the good playthrough because I didn’t like leaving the universe in the state in which I left it in the neutral playthrough.

      And then I played through New Vegas again and again and again for the exact same reason.

      More of the same?

      You promise?

      Because my worry is that they’re trying to mix things up.Report

      • DavidTC in reply to Jaybird says:

        This.

        I’ve mentioned how I want ‘more of the same’ for Fallout for quite some time. Seriously, if they would keep giving out 10 hour DLCs, I’d keep handing them $10 a pop.

        Because my worry is that they’re trying to mix things up.

        In both Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, there were a lot of design limitations based the engine.

        In 3, that’s why they had to split up the inside of DC and make it where you had to take the subway to get in, and in NV, that’s why there are those stupid doors inside the Vegas strip. Both these can be fixed via mods if you have a powerful enough computer.

        Likewise, it’s why there are interior and exterior areas. (Although that’s also because the insides are like 50% larger than the outsides would allow.)

        It would be nice if that limitation got removed, and we got a real open world, at least exterior.Report

        • Hoosegow Flask in reply to DavidTC says:

          Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed the games and spent countless hours playing them and I’ll almost definitely buy FO4. The trailer just didn’t encourage me to jump aboard the hype train yet.Report