Weekly Links #295

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Hello, everyone. I forgot my own rule this week, and posted a tabletop RPG review right here on the blog instead of the wiki with all the others. Did put the requisite links there, but it's not the same thing. And while I feel safer with new material stored as plain text, it does spread content around again just as it had settled in a new shape. Oh well.

In the way of development, I took a break from games for a few days to work on a couple of tools and also make plans. And what I'd like to do in the near future is more ports, even if not many people will play them. Some of them will find a place on the website. Maybe most. Others, not so much. Hopefully some writing will fall out of it for a change, because it's been a while. Can't promise though.

As for news, the week begins well. On Tuesday, Hardcore Gaming 101 covers Strike Commander, an offshoot of the more famous Wing Commander series. Oh, boy, here we go with the drinking game again:

  • It's yet another story of horrid crunch in the early 1990s. Can't help but think no game ever made was worth the ruined lives, let alone this relatively obscure tech demo and filler.
  • That said, you mean software rendering was already so advanced in the same era, only to be thrown away in a few short years because hardware manufacturers needed to sell their newfangled GPU boards?
  • Ha ha, there was a time when 3D modeling was considered grunt work. Oh dear. How things change.
  • What doesn't change is how tightly games are connected to the political context of when they were made. This isn't new, folks. We were just taught to accept media upholding the status quo as being somehow "apolitical". No more.
  • Wait, Freelancer took 6 frickin' years to make?! Chris Roberts really hasn't learned a thing in his decades as a game developer, has he.

Good read, right there, and not too long. Give it a few minutes of your time.

Too bad there wasn't much else worthy of note until Sunday. Oh well, enjoy what's left of the weekend, and see you next time.


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Tags: shooter, classics, graphics, news, meta