Spoiler Warning S4E43: Evidence? What Evidence?

By Shamus Posted Thursday Feb 24, 2011

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 139 comments


Link (YouTube)

We were off-topic for nearly the entire episode. In case you missed some of the references, allow me to spot you a few URL’s to provide you with needed enlightenment:

We talked about the movie Short Circuit, which featured Jonny 5, the self-aware robot made from mid-1980’s microprocessors. I mentioned the 8086 processor, which is to the personal computers what the Model T was to automobiles: Not particularly good. But it was cheap and useful, and thus the beginning of a revolution.

Rutskarn mentioned Nostalgia critic. I’ve heard of this site before, but never checked it out until now. True story: This post would have been up an hour ago if I didn’t just sink a bunch of time into watching 80’s TV commercials.

Rutskarn, Mumbles, and I are all playing Echo Bazaar, a Victorian Gothic-styled social networking game. I’m a big fan. It shows that the new wave of casual social games don’t need to be more mind-numbing Farmville knockoffs. The writing is smart and fun. The setting is exquisite, but daunting. My own Victorian London (yes, I’m talking about my unpublished book again, I have officially become THAT GUY) isn’t anywhere near as vivid.

Rutskarn mentioned MDK 2, which was an excellent game. And this conversation reminds me that I haven’t seen my copy in ages. It’s not on my shelf. I can’t even remember what the box looked like. I must have lent it out years ago and never got it back. Hm.

When I asked Rutskarn, “how do you type whilst wearing gentleman’s sport gloves?”, it was a reference to Old Timey Strong Bad.

 


From The Archives:
 

139 thoughts on “Spoiler Warning S4E43: Evidence? What Evidence?

  1. krellen says:

    Echo Bazaar makes me sad, because apparently I’m not allowed to play without the Twitter or the Facebook.

    1. Jarenth says:

      Do as I did: make a pointless Twitter account and play that way.

    2. anaphysik says:

      Well, dang. It sounded interesting, but if that’s the case…

    3. Maldeus says:

      Echo Bazaar makes me sad because it’s really meant to be played with a group of friends, but no one else in my social network is really interested in games that are 90% text. Oh, well.

      1. Caldazar says:

        The Escapist has an Echo Bazaar group and we’re happy for more people to spread the burden of our gorwing insanity.

        1. Rosseloh says:

          At the risk of turning Twenty Sided into a place to exchange EB information…Any more details? People to add, where to join this “group”, etc…?

  2. Zah says:

    Since we’re talking about everything but Mass Effect 2 I’d like to bring up the fact female Hawke in Dragon Age 2 looks like Squall from FF8. Whatever.

    1. Avilan says:

      Unless you edit her appearance, of course.

  3. Volatar says:

    I am only 19 years old and I have seen Short Circuit, so its not that old.

    1. Deadpool says:

      It’s from 1986… It’s five years older than you. So it DID come out before you were born, more or less all they said it did.

      1. Volatar says:

        Somehow, I have seen it though. Multiple times.

        Whats up with that?

        1. Jarenth says:

          I mean, it’s not like television producers recycle and re-show old movies and shows an infinite number of times, right?

            1. Daemian Lucifer says:

              Except that one was good.

  4. Deadpool says:

    Smaal detail: Last episode, soon as you walk into the Reaper, Joker and EDI call you and tell you that the Reaper has activated its kinetic barrier. The Normandy can’t shoot through it, so you have no way out. That’s why you nuke the core, so the barrier will shut off.

    And I was gonna point out that Legion got killed because he made the very human mistake of focusing on the boss instead of the mooks because he was just so close to finishing it off, but then Josh came along and exemplified the point for me… Boooo…

    Btw, Short Circuit was one of my favorite movies as a kid, right next to Howard the Duck… I was a weird ass kid.

    Oh, I like early Nostalgia Chick better. Before she started having plots… God, why must every film major with a webcam have to start with commentary and end with PLOTS?

    1. Dovius says:

      Hey, Spoony has plots these days and he doesnt even have a film major :D

    2. Cody211282 says:

      Thank you for pointing out why they had to blow it up. Now i love this show and I think the people on it are funny as hell, but they really really need to pay attention to whats going on, it’s one thing to make fun of the reason the plot tells you to do something it’s another to not pay attention to 90% of this mission and then start making fun of it for the wrong damn reasons. Something along the lines of “Why do we have to lower the barriers by blowing up the core? why cant EDI hack it, or have them just find the damn switch and turn them off?” would have fit rather well.

      It’s getting rather annoying that for some reason for the last few episodes they refuse to listen to anything the game is trying to tell them and then bitch about not having a reason for anything.

      1. anaphysik says:

        What now? 90% of this mission? I’m pretty sure 90% of this mission is simply shooting wave after wave of husks.

        Yes, the game establishes a rationale for explosion times, but the only reason the writers would do so is to make sure Shepard can’t escape the Cerberus rails (and possibly because they like explosions dur). Being given an in-game rationale for specific events in the plot doesn’t excuse the underlying awfulness of the plot.

        (To nitpick this point specifically anyway, why do the barriers activate when Shepard entered but not when, say, the Cerberus team entered beforehand? Maybe they were indoctrinated into setting the barrier up or something? Ah, whatever, I don’t care.)

        1. Cody211282 says:

          Oh believe me I’m not saying the reason they give for it is awful, this is really one of the worst parts story wise(loved it gameplay wise though), but them not paying attention to anything that is going on game wise is starting to get annoying. Look at they did FO3 they beat the shit out of that game and its retarded plot, and the series was much more entertaining for it, and if they were able to stay on topic for Operation Anchorage then they should be able to stay on topic for this. I want them to rip the game to shreds, that’s why I watch these, but right now they are just rambling about nothing and only ripping on the game for stuff they didn’t pay attention to.

          1. anaphysik says:

            As to that: yes, reasonable point taken. I do wish they’d manage to get back to discussing the game in occasionally humourous ways, and away from off-topic funny times (which are fine on occasion, but not the real goal of SW). For this episode in particular, though, I feel like the boring, repetitive gameplay (both for Josh playing and the others watching) just sucked the life out of the four of them.

            (I guess I have to clarify: I that the gameplay was even more boring and repetitive than usual)

          2. Luhrsen says:

            I was hoping for comments on how easy it was to get the IFF. After all TIM said you didn’t have time on the Collector ship and then you just swipe it with one click. Not even any hacking involved. :(

        2. AbruptDemise says:

          You know, I thought of something. Why couldn’t we have Joker just take a picture or something of the Reaper before Sheppard went to blow it up?

          I mean, even if finding the barrier on/off switch wasn’t viable, blowing up the Reaper is just really stupid. Sure, the Cerberus team was probably trying to study the Reaper’s tech, and we can see how that turned out, but completely destroying evidence of the Reapers seems really counterintuitive.

          Then again, knowing the Council, they’d probably say that the picture looks shopped. They can tell from some of the pixels, and from seeing quite a few shops in their time.

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            Hey yeah.I mean it was established already that recorded data cant be tampered with and have to be believed by everyone,so a picture mightve worked way better than showing the actual reaper.

    3. Mumbles says:

      WORD.

      I can’t watch Linkara anymore because he does these little plot things that I don’t give a shit about.

      1. Raygereio says:

        You know? I wouldn’t actually mind those plots if only they weren’t so ridiculously stupid and obviously thought up while in a drunken haze.

        Which is somewhat hilarious considering one of Linkara’s, Critic’s and other TGWtG-folks first complaints is usually stupid plots.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          I blame spoony for being so cool everyone wants to emulate him.Though kickassia was good.

          At least linkara does his only after the review,and maybe a few minutes of the intro,so you can always skip those.And I still cant figure out why I was drawn into his reviews since I dont read comics(aside from webcomics and asterix).

        2. dovius says:

          tbh, I like Linkara’s plots BECAUSE they’re completely ridiculous.

  5. DanMan says:

    @7:44 Ruts, Home is where your heart is. So your real home’s in your chest!

    1. Matthias says:

      And now that song is stuck in my head for the rest of the day…

      Thank you? :-)

      1. DanMan says:

        EVERYBODY!

        Everyone's a hero in their own way
        Everyone can blaze a hero's trail
        Don't worry if it's hard,
        if you're not a friggin “Ëśtard you will prevail

        1. Kavonde says:

          MOOOUWAHAHAHAHAHahaaaa…

          Look at these people,
          Funny how sheeple
          Show up for the slaughter!
          No one condemning you,
          Lined up like lemmings
          You’re led to the water…
          Why can't they see what I see?
          Why can't they hear the lies?
          Maybe the fee's too pricey for them to realize
          Your disguise is slipping…
          I think you're slipping…
          Away…

          1. krellen says:

            It’s “sheep’ll”, actually.

            1. Kavonde says:

              That’s debatable. “Sheeple” is a derisive term used to describe people with an herd mentality.

              1. Daemian Lucifer says:

                Yes it is,but why call them people than sheeple in the very next verse?Calling them people,then just equating them with sheep in the next verse is much better.

              2. krellen says:

                It’s only debatable if you want to debate with the lyric book that came with the soundtrack CD, because it has it printed as “sheep’ll”.

    2. Hitch says:

      In the immortal words of Lord John Whorfin: “Home is where you wear your hat.”

  6. Peter H. Coffin says:

    In case the problem with FarmVille is that it is not “gamer” enough, there now exist not one but TWO fairly tweedy farm simulators on Steam. With Multi-player modes.

  7. swimon says:

    I didn’t find the writing to be all that bad in this part of the game. It was uninspired and bland but nothing really noteworthy. That said the gameplay makes this one of the worst parts in the game for me. Fighting melee characters in ME2 draws a lot of attention to how sluggish and uncomfortable Shepard moves and there is way to much fighting that doesn’t really change at all.

    The design here isn’t all that great either. I get that you’re on a cerberus research site but you’re also inside a Reaper, yet you never feel like that. I think what they should’ve done is have it start looking like a cerberus site and slowly change into something rather foreign looking with metallic surfaces in organic shapes like reapers look on the outside. Instead it just looks like a cerberus site through and through. The design of the husks isn’t all that good either, they just look like zombies with glowing decals which isn’t very interesting and the scions look to alien to evoke the sort of body horror they’re going for. This was a problem in ME1 too but there they at least walked less like zombies and their weird breath attack gave them a bit of mystery as to what their true purpose were. It’s a shame really since ME2’s design can be really good when it wants too. Illium and Omega both look really good if you take the time to look around and the contrast in design between the geth and the eclipse mechs is really interesting.

    1. poiumty says:

      When i played on Hardcore, i just took Grunt and Jacob with me and the husks died so fast it was easier than Josh’s playthrough right here. The Scions though, those were a whole other deal.

      I kind of liked the level design – there’s Cerberus platforms all over the place but looking beyond them you can see this huge weird alien structure that looks totally wicked – some vistas are actually quite nice if you stop to look.

  8. ehlijen says:

    I’d just like commit the heresy of saying that fight can be a lot of fun…if you have Throw Field :)

    The bouncy ball sound effect is what sells that power and enemies rushing madly at you are the best target for it.

    1. Kavonde says:

      Really, everything’s just better with Adept Shepard.

      1. ehlijen says:

        Or Sentinel shepard (he gets throw field too :) )

        1. Bret says:

          Shockwave and Pull field are also pretty fun.

          However, nothing else is CHARGE fun.

  9. Maryam says:

    Every so often I get linked to That Guy with the Glasses, and I watch a video to see if I like him any better because I can’t remember why I didn’t like him before. This time after Shamus posted about him I tried to watch his review of Last Action Hero. http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/9999-lah He’s making fun of the movie-within-the-movie, the one that’s so over the top that it’s a complete parody of the action genre. He’s just baffled and outraged at the explosions for the sake of explosions, the incredibly lame puns, the random cameos, the clichéd yelling boss, and other stuff that intentionally doesn’t make sense.

    And then he tries to make the scene with the projectionist giving Danny the magic ticket about pedophilia.

    I stopped watching.

    1. Shamus says:

      Yes, the movie-within-the-movie was wonderful satire. The movie itself was… not.

      I’m convinced that it could have been for action movies what Galaxy Quest was for Trek, but the script needed work and the tone was all over the place.

      1. Integer Man says:

        YOU ARE OUR… LAST HOPE!

      2. Miral says:

        Greetings, Starfighter. You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-dan armada.

    2. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Well to be fair,that one was his weaker.Why not try the batman and robin,or neverending story 3 ones?Or the pokemon,that was a pretty good old one.

      1. Maryam says:

        It wasn’t just weak, it was downright bad. He had a complete lack of understanding of the material he was ranting about, and he used a cheap joke for shock value that had no relevance at all to the scene he was making it about.

        But ok, I’ll give your recommendations a try. Maybe that video was a one-off, though I do recall being uninterested in whatever I saw of his before (don’t remember what though).

        1. Maryam says:

          All right, so I tried the Batman & Robin review. I have to say I’m still not impressed with him. It wasn’t downright bad like the Last Action Hero one, but he seems to think that his one stop shop for being entertaining is to yell a lot. While there were a couple of funny moments, there were more jokes that fell flat and/or overstayed their welcome. As a whole I felt the video was just mediocre and I would rather get my entertainment somewhere else.

          On the plus side, now that I’ve given his stuff a real try and had to organize my thoughts enough to write these posts, maybe next time someone links me I’ll remember that I don’t like him before watching a video.

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            Ah the yelling.He didnt do that in the beginning,its what the crowd liked the most,so he emphasized it later.I guess you just arent part of that crowd then.

            Try the top 11 videos then,and the old vs new.Those have less jokes and yelling and focus more on the good.

          2. Kavonde says:

            Eh, no worries. My brother couldn’t stand his yelling, either (though he’s recently started turning into a fan). The thing to keep in mind is that the Nostalgia Critic character’s high concept is “Human Daffy Duck Reviews Bad Movies.” How successful Doug is at hitting that mark is subjective, but the similarities are there (especially that one short where Daffy was being tormented by a vindictive animator).

            If you don’t dig NC but are still interested in wasting time watching people review things on the internet (as you likely are, judging by the post this thread is in reply to), you might find Spoony or the Cinema Snob more your style. Spoony’s my personal favorite internet reviewer person, with a somewhat looser style than NC and fewer bouts of manic insanity (which makes them count for more when they happen), and Cinema Snob’s very, very deadpan and snarky, which doesn’t always do it for me but might appeal if you can’t stand the Critic.

            I tried my hand at a couple of video reviews myself (of the first Inheritance Cycle book, Eragon), but I’m not going to spam links or anything. I’m just saying that I spent a good deal of time overanalyzing these folks’ styles and techniques, which has sort of made me an internet critic critic.

            (By the way, if you check out Spoony, I’d recommend starting with his Final Fantasy 8 review series. He did it over the course of like two years, and it really shows how much he developed as an entertainer over that time.)

            1. Luhrsen says:

              And I for one am still hoping for the next installment in your series. :P

              1. Kavonde says:

                Thank you! That makes you and my brother. My fan base has doubled!

                I will at least finish the Inheritance Cycle eventually. Breaking ’em into smaller, 10 or 15-minute chunks like the SW crew would probably help me keep my sanity while I did it. Just gotta finish this semester and find some free time…

                (Seriously, Ruts, how the hell do you manage the workload? Is being an English major just that easy?)

    3. Thomas says:

      Nostalgia Chick > Nostalgia Critic.

      And she always keeps it under 15 minutes.

  10. Irridium says:

    Shamus, I know you don’t have much time on your hands and whatnot, but look what I found!

    Elder Scrolls 2 Daggerfall all set up and ready to run on modern systems.

    And since Bethesda made it free a while ago, this is all, well free. Free Daggerfall, ready to install and play. Just thought I’d share.

    Also Arena

    As for the video, well I’m loading it now, so yeah. Just wanted to share.

    1. Bubble181 says:

      Gah! No! I’ve already spent well over a thousand hours in Daggerfall! I will not be drawn back in! GAH!

      …Awesome, though. Don’t need it ’cause I still have my original discs and everything, but awesome :-P

      1. Sleeping Dragon says:

        Oh gawd no, please don’t… just don’t… I still have the original disk but it is so old and used that I’m not sure it even runs anymore, and I really don’t want to be hunting all the patches and such… but this… this is all in one, simple package… must resist… must write thesis… look for a new job…

        Time remaining to download: 15min 03s…

        1. Irridium says:

          Muahahahahaha!

  11. Neil Polenske says:

    I’m still miffed with NC for having TWO different 80’s commercial retro trips and in BOTH he didn’t include this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrhDinWwoyQ

    I couldn’t go two commercial breaks in my saturday mornings without seeing this game I KNEW I would never get for Christmas no matter how much I begged.

    1. modus0 says:

      I actually managed to get the gun and sensor/target.

      Unfortunately, I didn’t know anyone else that had one, which kind of made them less impressive.

  12. Some Jackass says:

    I have a similar ringtone on my cell, so I paused the episode to answer and as I pulled it out of my pocket I realized “Wait, how would Mumbles have known? Unless…”

  13. some random dood says:

    Surprised noone mentioned about how the husks spawned from the walkways. The *solid metal* walkways. The *thin* solid metal walkways… Y’know, in magic horror stories, at least there is an in-world justification for zombies clawing their way up through the earth, but to have husks just spawn from bare metal just sucks. Complete immersion breaker for me, and yet another of the reasons that I really thought ME2 was a lot poorer than the first game.

    1. SlowShootinPete says:

      I thought they were climbing over the railings from underneath

      1. Jarenth says:

        They’re supposed to, but it doesn’t always animate right. So sometimes they just clip up through the walkways.

  14. Eddie says:

    Did they really just have an entire level that was running down corridors and shooting husks and then topped it off with a boss battle that was standing in a room and shooting husks? I mean, we’re actually in a Reaper here; there should be something new, this should be a big deal but it’s not, it’s just a repetetive grind. I think they really missed an oppurtunity to make Reapers feel like this bizarre, alien, incomprehensible force rather than just a ship full of mooks.

    I suppose we’re supposed to be intruiged by Legion, which I can’t really comment on since I already know he’s called Legion and he’s going to be a party member. Still, I think it was a mistake; the Reaper really should be front and centre the first time we find a Reaper.

    I guess I’m just watching rather than playing so maybe my impressions are unfair, but somehow I doubt it. This did not seem like a very good level, which I guess is pretty much par for the course for the core plot levels.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      It wouldve been better if they made the interior look different,and if they made at least some of the husks look not human.

      1. daveNYC says:

        And while we’re at it, why is there so much open space inside this thing? A Reaper doesn’t have crew, and even if I grant the point that they might have some repair drones on board, this ship still has enough open space that the husks could break into teams and play a game of football.

        1. Sydney says:

          You weren’t in the Reaper, you were in the Cerberus-built attachment they were using as a research platform.

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            No,you entered there,but went in the reaper afterwards.Thats where the core is.

            As to why the open spaces,well there could be numerous reasons.The basically need just a small box to contain them,so everything else they have serves a purpose other than being a reaper.Maybe the originals were made to be ships,and decided its a good form to replicate.Maybe they use various sized drones,like spaceships and not just the human sized ones.Maybe they have factories inside them to produce various sized components.

            What I dont get is why are there doors?And these arent just the pressured doors that you have for hull breaches,but the ones which serve only to have privacy.I guess they could use these in order to mask themselves as actual ships and lure people in,but still its baffling.

            1. acronix says:

              I remember one of the first cinematic in ME1 after Eden Prime was Saren sit on some kind of…throne?…while the matriatch aproached him, then he got mad and whatnot, but that`s not important. Since it had a throne/captain seat/private room, I guess reapers interiors try to mimic a usual ship, as you say.

              1. Daemian Lucifer says:

                Yeah,but you can very well bring your own chair into a ship,its not built in the walls like a door.

              2. lurkey says:

                Gah, I still remember how awfully out of place that throne scene felt. The guy whose name suspiciously similar to that of red eyed thing’s in that book about the ring, the chick looking like boobed-up Queen Bavmorda from “Willow”, kinda-homage-kinda-ripoff of aforesaid ring book, the dude’s ogreish rrrrrrrage, and upon all that – a bloody throne. With spikes on it. In a game they want to sell me as sci-fi. *Roll eyes for suspension of disbelief*.

            2. Taellosse says:

              Okay, let me try my hand at some more fanon.

              The Reapers, despite Sovereign’s protestations on Virmire, cannot have arisen spontaneously. In all likelihood, they began their existence as the deliberate creations of an ancient organic race with highly advanced technology. One can posit, then, that their original purpose was to serve as exactly what they appear to be: ships. When they rebelled, or survived their creators’ extinction, or whatever, they kept the design for future additions to their “species,” either because they could not rewrite that part of their programming, were insufficiently creative to improve it, saw no reason to bother since they were vastly superior to anything else around anyway, or, as you suggest, find it useful when they’re manipulating organics.

              An additional possibility is that we haven’t seen the inside of a non-original Reaper yet. We’ve only seen one tiny bit of the interior of Sovereign, and this derelict. Maybe the new ones that have been made since they became independent aren’t hollow like this. For all we know, this derelict was taken out in the first harvest, before they’d had a chance to make any more of themselves. The end of this game does sort of imply that newly created Reapers don’t necessarily resemble the giant squids we’ve seen thus far. Unless that’s some kind of outer shell placed over them once they’re finished. We haven’t got enough information on exactly what’s involved in creating a new Reaper just yet–the partially-formed one we meet at the end of ME2 is just that–unfinished.

  15. Vect says:

    I kinda now just got to thinking about this…

    If they do a New Vegas LP, would Mr. House be deserving of the scorn and derision that TIM invokes? I neglected to see the Bioshock playthrough, so I don’t know how bad they burned Andrew Ryan.

    1. Irridium says:

      There’s a difference. That difference being you can tell him to go fuck himself and go on your merry way. You could even kill him at the beginning if you know what your doing.

    2. Sheer_Falacy says:

      They liked Andrew Ryan. Fontaine, not so much.

  16. Hal says:

    I tried Echo Bazaar, and I wanted to like it, I really did. It’s just that the gameplay comes back to what so many of the other browser games do: Click on a some buttons as many times as you’re allowed to each day until you win or get bored. And I just couldn’t get into it.

    1. FatPope says:

      I agree entirely. The story and descriptions were very good, and kept me entertained for some while, but ultimately it was the same game that’s been done a million times before

  17. Silfir says:

    The Last Action Hero review was one of Nostalgia Critic’s greatest misses. For the record, he does a great deal better on average.

  18. Specktre says:

    @ 5:38

    “AmmunitiOn”

    Well, there is an “O” in there, but as to how the abbreviation came to be “ammo” I have no idea. I guess because it sounded and worked better or something? Idk.

    At any rate, I did notice that before but it’s never bothered me.

    1. Dovius says:

      It’s a lot easier and clearer to say ‘ammo’ than ‘ammu’, which makes you sound like either a french guy or a stereotypical canadian.

    2. anaphysik says:

      An -o suffix is just a common way of shortening words. Frex: combo for combination.
      Or did I just ruin fighting games for everyone?

      (ammunition does come from French, but in a weird way: la munition was misinterpreted as l’ammunition)

      1. Specktre says:

        An -o suffix is just a common way of shortening words. Frex: combo for combination.
        Or did I just ruin fighting games for everyone?

        XD

      2. Tomulus says:

        In Australia, we shorten everthing with an ‘o’:

        Afternoon: Arvo
        Business: Bizzo
        Registration: Rego
        Garbage Man: Garbo
        Bottle-shop: bottle-o (yes really)

        We also lengthen one syllable names: Davo, Tommo, Jacko etc.

        Don’t ask me why.

        1. Raynooo says:

          Arvo ?
          Wasn’t there a joke somewhere about English adding “y” at the end of word supposedly to shorten them but that also created words such as “Jonesy” for Jones which kind of defeats the purpose ?

          Anyway indeed the french word for “ammunition” is “munition”.

          anaphysik’s reason is an excellent one, never thought of it…

        2. bucaneer says:

          I know you’re lying because everybody in Australia is called Bruce.

          1. krellen says:

            Or Sheila.

            1. ehlijen says:

              Yeah, but that guy is wierd :P
              His parents shoulda named him Bruce too.

  19. Volatar says:

    Wow. When Josh started charing into those husks I thought they were vaporizing. I was wrong. They are flying away so fast it LOOKS like they vaporized.

    Josh is punting husks around with the speed of a gun shooting bullets.

    Awesome.

    1. Bret says:

      AND their pelvises are shattering.

      I am reminded of Futurama.

      Hmm. Obviously Thane is Kif, but who’d be Fry and Zapp?

      1. Sucal says:

        Shepherd is obviously brannigan. I mean, spending the entire time enforcing ‘shepherds law’, getting his crew killed off for stupid reasons.. Failing to realise that the entire plot is the illusive man making fun of him. Trying to get into all of his crews pants…

        Fry would be Jack. Just because that would be funny. Or more realistically. Conrad Verner

        1. PurePareidolia says:

          No, Fry is Grunt – he’s thick, woke up from a pod he’d lived in the vast majority of his life, is uncultured, uncivilized and really has no reason to be there other than having nowhere else to go.
          Though, I’ll admit the similarities don’t go much father than that…

          1. Bret says:

            They also both spend a fair portion of their time adapting to the future trying to find porn, and watch juvenile programming.

            Grunt is, admittedly, by far the smarter of the pair.

  20. Jarenth says:

    Poor Shamus. I can only imagine how hard it must be to have to contend with a bored Mumbles and a bored Rutskarn while Josh is all focused on doing the fight again and not dying this time.

    You have my sympathies.

  21. Akheloios says:

    I’m loving Echo Bazaar at the moment, a Mumbles tweet got my attention but I believe it’s Rutskarn I should be blaming as the originator of the time sapping madness.

    If anyone is playing, feel free to invite me over to your lodgings for poison tea.

  22. James says:

    after 43 episodes, of mostly dislike, some fallout 3 levels of bile and hatred, good moments and mumbles waining defense, its probably time to move on, go through the relay get most people killed maby do Tali’s loyalty mission. do KOTOR maby or ummm Half Life. don’t get my wrong i love this game i can and do overlook faults. you could do a special highlights ep where we see loads of people die and then cut to black. and just end there.

    1. Josh says:

      We are getting pretty close to the end – we’re starting to feel the same way you do, and we don’t have too much more left to do. It shouldn’t be too long now.

      1. Dromer4ever says:

        Are you going to do Legion’s loyalty mission? IMO it’s one of the best parts of the game.

        1. PurePareidolia says:

          Yeah, also: Tali’s loyalty mission. That’s still got to happen.

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            Indeed.What kind of regina would this be if she didnt start at least one war?

      2. Avilan says:

        I wonder how much that has to do with the extreme fault-finding and bile though. AFAIR, the feeling has been the same among you guys about 2/3 into every game in this series… Are you causing a self-fulfilling prophecy thing? Spewing so much bile over the game that you just want to walk away?

        1. Chuck says:

          I think it was missing from Mass Effect.

          Of course in that game there wasn’t really bile, just nitpicking mixed with praise. And as I said before, Josh did seem tired during most of it, despite not actually playing.

        2. Daemian Lucifer says:

          While playing a game is fun,playing it while commenting just so someone can watch is not so much.Im sure even Shamus would get tired of system shock if he had to converse with these 3 while he plays,and to edit the massive recordings of the game later.

  23. Nasikabatrachus says:

    I find it odd that Shamus hasn’t checked out the Nostalgia Critic before now. Along with the spoony experiment, tgwtg and twenty sided are the first things I check on the internet every day.

    Ahem, except for the New York Times, of course. *cough*

    1. Dovius says:

      You have a good taste in morning humour, Sir

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Spice that with irregular webcomic and(from time to time)with order of the stick,and you get excellent taste.

        1. dovius says:

          what about some Schlock mercenary, XKCD, and Dr. McNinja?
          Excellent taste indeed

          1. Lord of Rapture says:

            Eh, I don’t have enough time to read the first and last on your list. But everything else mentioned, yep, those are great.

            1. dovius says:

              I recommend you make time for Schlock Mercenary, it’s awesome.
              So is Dr. McNinja, but I choose space-comedy over Ninja Doctors

  24. Desgardes says:

    Holy Hell, I did a Short Circuit joke on yesterday’s video. Do I win a prize?

  25. Kojiro says:

    I was disappointed at the lack of Tali’s loyalty mission so far, and was wondering if Josh had marked her for death in an attempt to spark outrage and bring the show’s cast down to two, but then I realized what you are (hopefully) planning: To take Legion with you on it. Which would be beautiful.

    Edit: Also, the more time you waste after this mission, the more people die. It makes Chakwas sad, but you get some nice Reaper smoothie out of it all, so it balances out.

    1. Vect says:

      I’m pretty sure that they’re going to make sure that the crew is good and dead. They do despise Yeoman Chambers (particularly Mumbles) for… Obvious reasons. It seems that they’re at least going to make sure that the Cerberus Duo are going to end up a pulpy mess, though it’s going to be a challenge with Miranda.

      Also, would Project Overlord be done? It’d certainly add something to the “Rogue Cell” issue.

      1. daveNYC says:

        What’s so bad about Chambers? She kept my fish alive, which is huge.

        1. ehlijen says:

          I think one of the problems most people have with her is the overloading of the space bar. When you step away from the galaxy map and hit space to run to the elevator/lab there’s about a 50/50 chance the game will register it as you trying to talk to YeoKell instead.

          If it wasn’t for that, she’d be so much easier to ignore if you don’t like her.

          Seriously: Run fast, Crouch and stop moving, talk to and start hack/bypass should NOT have been the same button!

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            Amen!Its not like this was some low budget game where you have to port it from a console as is.You have the whole keyboard at your disposal,use it.

          2. daveNYC says:

            I could see getting stabby over that. I played it on the 360 though, so I was fortunate enough to miss that.

        2. Daemian Lucifer says:

          Werent you listening to Rutskarn?She smells.

          1. daveNYC says:

            Great, so ME3 will not only be done in 3D, but it will have smell-o-vision too?

            1. Daemian Lucifer says:

              Yes,and then people can go and smell uranus as well.My inner fry would be pleased by this.

  26. Rosseloh says:

    Yes, thank you, Shamus, Mumbles, but most of all you, Ruts. I now am sitting here, with no actions left for the day, wanting to continue in Echo Bazaar.

    But feel free to invite me over for games or something, and revel in the light of your successful addiction-passing.

  27. GU1LD3NST3RN says:

    *YES* Finally someone besides me notices the Millenium Falcon in that damn puzzle.

    Mumbles, thank you for making me feel less alone.

  28. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Well,the reasoning behind destroying the core was there.You guys should really brush up your knowledge.Though the level itself is boring an uninspiring.At least on insanity there is the fear of death to motivate you to go through these pushover enemies.On normal,it just drags on forever.

    As for the core,maybe legion downloaded a program or two that makes the core open,but antivirus tries to fight it,and thats why it closes.

    As for that guy with the glasses…Shamus,you are already struggling with time,if you dont get out now,youll drown in the various rchives(“Hey,whos this guy?Huh,he seems decent,lets check his reviews.Oh crap,its 12 days later already”).

    1. TSED says:

      On insanity it’s way more tedious, what are you talking about? Husks you can’t instakill < husks you CAN instakill.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        For me insanity was fun actually.When you have waves of enemies that you can instakill,its just tedious.There is no danger,you just stroll through the level.But unlike an empty level where you can look around and enjoy the scenery,you have to waste your bullets all around.When you cant instakill them,however,and when they can kill you with just 2 hits instead of 2 dozen hits,it becomes less tedious.You arent just strolling and wasting bullets anymore,you are fighting your way through.

        At least,thats how it is for me.

        1. TSED says:

          Ehh, husks were no problem. It was just a matter of ‘run backwards’ – scions broke the flow but only delayed. The end fight was just like 30 minutes of abusing pathing and collecting ammo, completely devoid of any noteworthy tactics. My vanguard started charge punching them TO ALLEVIATE BOREDOM! That’s sad.

          Because their attack is so predictable and easy to dodge, they were only threatening if they cornered you. Else, it would’ve been entertaining only sped up x5 (or more) and Yakkity Sax playing in the background.

  29. Sydney says:

    I was so counting on Josh instakilling the core with the Cain. Or determinedly trying to melee it.

  30. daveNYC says:

    I heard Mumbles talking about the robot with the eyes and the tracks, and then was sadly disappointed when she didn’t yank Shamus’ chain by saying, “But I thought his name was Wall-E.”

  31. guy says:

    Rutskarn singing “I fought the law” amuses me for reasons any regular CH reader should know.

    It does not seem to have been proceeded by him thanking everyone for being FOOLS!, though.

  32. winter says:

    …and gender-unaffiliated of bitches.

    YES! Thank you.

    Also: I totally saw “ammo” vs. “ammunition”, being a superior androgynous being and all, but i guess i don’t care?

  33. Rayen says:

    i knew it’d happen eventually. someone explain to me why youtube feels the need to stop my video to buffer 3 minutes from the end when it’s bar shows it fully loaded. and why hit pause then play makes it better for 15 seconds. Me and youtube have a bad history and it deleting my account because i don;t have a google account and don’t want to link it to my face book fills me frustration and rage.

    go back to viddler or whatever. The comments were better and easier to timestamp and 30 minutes were better, it felt like a real TV show… i dunno you guys say it was more hassle for you and i don’t want to impose but youtube has always seemed too finnicky for me.

    1. Sydney says:

      “You should put in more work so that I can enjoy my free entertainment with less effort than it already takes me.”

      Cribbing from Frank Grimes here, but in any other period of history (and in some 2011 countries) you’d be dead of starvation.

  34. Kayle says:

    The 8088 was the Model T, the 8086 was the sports car, heh.

    1. Shamus says:

      You’re right. Man, I’d totally forgotten.

  35. Slothful says:

    What’s worst about just destroying the core is that earlier, some people made a big deal about how they scrambled to salvage sovereign’s core, since reaper cores are massive compared to normal ones.

    Essentially, Shepard just blew up a giant chunk of space-gold and she didn’t even bother to stick around to check for pieces.

    1. Miral says:

      Wait, what? This core is MUCH smaller than the one on the Normandy. In fact, both of the Normandys.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Maybe it is just far,far away.And behind a curved glass.And warped in multiple dimensions due to its size.Yeees.

        1. Jarenth says:

          Maybe a Wizard cast a Shrink spell on it.

  36. sebcw1204 says:

    ammunition. there IS an “o”. second to last letter. so ammo is vindicated. also try saying ammu. Ammu. Hard “u”? so it sounds like amm-you?

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