A game derived of questions

So, I just played through Deliver At All Costs and I'm not a fan. But, first, the premise: the game is based in an alternate reality world set in the 50's where the main protagonist is some kind of a genius but is unable to make rent, and so, he becomes a delivery man for We Deliver. Oh, and, the environment is highly destructible.

 

Perhaps not the strangest of premises ... but, I do have a few questions.

 

 

Who is this for?

I would think that the skibidi generation wouldn't be particularly interested in reliving the 50's so this small misstep would probably be enough to swipe left. And then the 50's survivors would all be in their eighties at this stage and I doubt they're still gaming. Especially when they've got important things to do like trying to remember their wives' names.

 

Why is the tone so inconsistent?

Almost everything in this world can be destroyed and demolished - including buildings. This, combined with 'hilarious' ads on the radio gives that aspect of the game a lighthearted tone. Then you have the cutscenes which are played straight. Then you have the UFO's ... and then you have the time travel + macguffin subplot which makes no sense at all. The game starts with almost no fanfare - and plenty of cutscenes. When we finally do get control, it begins with walking around your apartment, getting dressed and reading plans. As introductions go, this is probably the worst. Only my memory of the trailer kept me from quitting right there. Also, whenever you destroy a cash box, the guy shouts out cha-ching! or Dollar Bills! which is jarring, considering the era this is set in.

 

Why does it have no tension?

It's super weird that there was absolutely no penalty for dying, failing a mission, or being arrested by cops. Nothing. Zero. Nada. We didn't lose one peso in any of these exchanges and, outside of a small amount of backtracking, it makes all missions merely a mild inconvenience.

In summary, I think the game did have a kernel of good but far too many strange decisions to actually be deemed good. Now, if I were to design this game, I would

• Change it to a modern setting (for monetary reasons)
• Build the game around showcasing this destruction and keep the filler (i.e. plot) in the background.
• Lose the forced isometric camera and employ a better layout with better navigation markers.
• Make the story (if any) play out in an irreverent tone which could simply be used to facilitate this playground of destruction. To that point, I'd lean on the design choices in Saints Row series as the blueprint. That is, there would be main story missions but plenty of pointless and fun mini games just played out for laughs.
• Focus on delivery as the games' subsystem. It seems strange to say this, but the delivery aspect in this game took kind of a backseat. Yes, you're delivering things but most of those things are ridiculous like e.g. atomic bombs but if you had a more nuanced delivery management system, it would provide greater depth to the game

And that's about it. As it currently stands, this game is heavily flawed and gets lost in the cutscenes. In the end, I was skipping most of them just because they were poorly written, animated and did little for my enjoyment of the game.

The general public is wrong*

So, I recently watched Deadpool and Wolverine ... alongside Spider-man home #3 (AKA No way home) and neither one impressed me. Off topic: I can't be the only one who has to google the 'home name' each time since I can never remember which one Homecoming, No Way Home or Far from Home is in the sequence of the Spider-man movies.

 

But, to get back to the point of this post, the reason that I'm singling out those two movies is because both of them made over a billion (gross) at the cinema and both of them are terrible movies *in my opinion. Both leaned into member berries and cameos and both had a pointless plot and characters I did not care one iota about. Maybe I'm getting too old for this ish but I was bored in both of these movies and the constant quips made any stakes in the plot seem more like a mild inconvenience than any actual threat.

In Deadpool 3 I have more of a bitter taste watching this - especially once you understand the context around one of his (ugh) multiverse Deadpools: Nice Pool. Apparently, the inspiration behind Nice Pool was Justin Baldoni and was due to the ugly goings on in the (never been a particularly good actor) wife's project: It Ends With Us. For context, the director-actor, Justin Baldoni, had been shopping his script around hollywood for many years without much success. And then he had a break, with the ancillary fame of Ryan Reynolds' wife (AKA Blake Lively), he finally got it off the ground. 

But it came with a catch.

Blake had somehow weasled out producer credits on the film and begun by redesigning her characters style (dress design credits), attempting to rewrite the story (writing credits), and attempting to master the final cut (editing credits). Naturally, Baldoni did not like this and pushed back in a number of areas during the production - and only when they had an 'edit off' (i.e. both her and the director submitted a final edited version of the film), which the Director won, did things calm down. But then the real drama came, as the mutton-dressed-as-lamb Blake Lively claimed improper behaviour by Baldoni and played the #metoo card to get her way. This caused problems for Baldoni, with his talent agency dropping him but, fortunately (or possibly intelligently), the Director (and crew) had kept detailed records of all the conversations, emails and videos corroborating his story and also painting old Lively in a much less favourable light. They're currently in the process of a lawsuit which Baldoni will more than likely win ... but even with a victory, I don't think either party will come out of this smelling like roses.

That's all to say that when it came time to create Wolverine, Reynolds was still holding a grudge, so he created a vegan Deadpool which was used to ridicule and insult (albeit indirectly) Baldoni. Perhaps if the writing was funny and tightly edited, I'd give it a pass - but it wasn't. This was just mean spirited (once you understand the context) and even old Canada boy came out of it looking less than the stereotypical picture of niceness. I have a feeling that the general public will very soon turn on Reynolds and Lively and I don't think I'll feel particularly sad when they do. Honestly, I'm surprised in the success of both movies although I'm also not surprised in the success. These movies are the kind of swill that pigs love but, for me, I prefer to have a little nuance, thought, and pacing to what is forced down my throat. 

 

Who am I kidding? You ain't doing it right unless you're sloppin' the joe.

Knowing when to fold em: Rocket League edition

I have never enjoyed watching or playing football (i.e. the one with the round ball that you mostly use your feet to hit) - and yet I was determined to endure the steep learning curve and torment from my teammates to git gud. The game in question? Rocket League: a game where you control a rocket-propelled car to hit an oversized football.

And all was good in the game for many years under the watchful gaze of Psyonix. That was, until, the siren call of Epic drew in this drunken sailor to its inevitable slumber under the sea. The cracks weren't immediately apparent, but we all knew where it was going. Fast-forward to today and the community has hemorrhaged to a husk of what it was, with the only one's left either being trolls, smurfs (i.e. good players playing with new accounts against lower ranks), or boosted (high-ranked accounts sold to bad players).

After over two thousand hours, I'm done. Yes, there are still good games from time-to-time but, most of the time, there aren't. Because I solo queue (i.e. don't team up), I'm at the mercy of the players Rocket League chooses to assign me. Most of the time I get players who don't know how to rotate (i.e. if you're done, you get back into a defensive position), score goals (I keep centering balls with no one in position) or instantly troll because they don't understand that it was their fault that the goal went in our net in the first place.

Perhaps most of what I just wrote won't mean a lick of sense to most of you but the points remain. Epic does not care about Rocket League. I think they were simply bought with the intent of farming new players into Fortnite and not to actually try to make Rocket League better. When that ploy failed to work, they're cutting their losses and letting it die. And so, I say adieu to you, Rocket League. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Realizing your dreams (while saving a few pennies)

For those who of you who know me, you will know that I've always appreciated quality over quantity. But that doesn't mean that I am willing to chase the dragon on diminishing returns. To that end, I've decided to dip my toes back into the world of audiophilic sound systems. Earlier in my life I had a very nice (and expensive) system that was definitely overkill ... but I loved it. Unfortunately, I had to let it go when I moved to the US.

Now, almost 13 years later, I'm in a position to plant roots, and so, I decided to upgrade from a compromised soundbar to something far more substantial. The best part of this was that I could build the perfect sound system by frankensteining a relatively understated array of parts into something rivaling the upper-most tiers for audio nirvana. Not even 5 years ago, I would have to have spent well over 2000 (USD equivalent) to get something which would not even be on parity with the system I have now. It is astounding how much hardware and software has evolved.

Here is the build:

• WiiM Ultra - a multi-source streamer with HDMI eArc and a vast array of inputs, including phono!
• SMSL SU-9N - this is a DAC (digital to analog convertor) which has astounding sound floors, clarity, voice separation, and staging and can support up to 32bit/768KHz playback
• Aiyima A70 - this has a 116dB SNR and can output 300 watts @ 0.0015% distortion ... per channel!
• Wharfdale Evo 4.2 - 87dB sensitivity @ 4 Ohms and 45Hz-22KHz range

This is audio nirvana and I can categorically state that there is no integrated amp that has better specs - at any price. Now, even though the cost of these components end up totalling a little more than your standard midrange soundbar, if you were to budget the cost over 10 years the difference would be negligible. I would challenge every household to invest in a quality soundsystem - especially one as versatile as this one, as the enjoyment you will get from this well outweighs the additional cost.

With these four components, I'm able to chromecast, play tidal/pandora/amazon music/spotify, auto-switch inputs automatically, have integrated Alexa, control all these elements through my phone, remote, and touchscreen (built into the WiiM) - and have room correction, preamp, integrated EQ. The end result is a system that has (I have to admit) brought a few tears to my eye, as it surpassed my expectations with its soundstage, power, accuracy, and clarity. If you appreciate good audio then these components should be something to be considered. The beauty of this is you can inch towards audio nirvana as the WiiM also is a fully fledged amplifier in itself.

Side note: I was one of the first to purchase the WiiM Ultra when it was released (about a month ago) and, as with any new hardware, it had a few teething problems. Audio playback was perfect but the HDMI eArc had issues. I reported this issue to WiiM and they sent out a replacement model (with the revised hardware fix) free of charge. Now, *that* is customer service.

Thank goodness for men's intuition

I would like to preface that I'm attempting to popularise Men's intuition, much to the chagrin of my partner, as I believe that women shouldn't be the only purveyors of intuition ... but I digress. Just over a year ago we migrated to France, as I felt like America wasn't progressing the way I wanted things to be moving. And, given today's sad news, it has reinforced the correctness of our choice.

You would think that in a time when common sense things like women's rights, gay rights and such had been sorted out many years ago, certain people wouldn't be looking to revoke those hard-fought wins once again. Well, apparently, many states in the US did not think so. Would you believe that not that long ago, Iraq was once a far more egalitarian society with women allowed to wear things other than full-length burkas? Fast forward a few years and societies such as that quickly moved to a draconian religion-lead existence where things such as robots had more of a right to drive than any woman.

Iraq, Baghdad in the 60's

It's funny to think what war and opposing fundamentalist religions can do to a country - and it looks like a similar approach may be taking place in the US right now. Perhaps, for the powers that be, this allows a better means of controlling the masses by returning them to an age where if you're not with us you're against us. Nothing ever is as clear-cut but a women's right to sufficient medical support should be something that no one could possibly object to, right? Apparently not.

And you would think that having a comparatively young, intelligent, felon-free, educated and well-spoken woman representing the American people would be an excellent choice in comparison to the felony-indicted cesspool of humanity who already incited one coup. Apparently I'm the one taking crazy pills, as the American people said, You know what? I like the cut of that senile oompa loompa's jib. He's got my vote. 

 

 

This disappoints me - but at least we got out before it completes the inevitable transition into a banana republic. Although, perhaps, an orange republic is more fitting given the shade of his skin.

In the pursuit of diminishing returns

It's a funny thing. We all want the best but, to reach that pinnacle, you need to push every envelope to its limit to even come within spitting distance of that unreachable goal. Case in point: the present top-of-the-line graphics card from Nvidia, the 4090, costs a baseline retail price of USD 1600, with the next in line being a paltry USD 1200. I built my whole computer for less than the price of one of those graphics cards. Alongside this, the 4090 ends up drawing over 400W and taking three slots on your computer. That's also about the power draw of my whole system. That is truly insane - but apparently people are still willing to buy it. But I will never be one of those people - let me explain.

My general rule is that if the next tier of  'thing' is 20% better but 50% more expensive, I'll generally pass on taking up that offer. This holds true for everything I've bought in my life. I purchased a very good 55" HDR Variable-refresh rate 4K LCD for $600. I could buy an OLED or Quantum dot TV - but that would be over 70% more expensive while being only subjectively better (or perhaps objectively better, with OLED black levels). This is the same thing for the set of headphones I purchased. They're wired and bluetooth enabled and only cost $35. They're sealed cans, look pretty spiffy, have excellent staging and clarity and, I would argue, that between this and 'studio' headphones, the difference is perhaps no more than 20% while being a small fraction of the cost of one of them (they're generally well over $500).

If you follow that one simple rule of diminishing returns, you can save yourself a lot of money and be content in experiencing 80% of the best while only spending 20% of the fare. Every generation of technology is pushing the needle higher so why not benefit? I used to drive a Fiat Abarth which I bought for $8K - a conservatively fast car by today's standards. Now, those same performance numbers if you pushed back to the 1980's results in you driving the equivalent of Magnum PI's Ferrari. Now, that is progress I can get behind, my friends.