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Shamus Young Dot Com

shamusyoung.com

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153 from 14 Sep 2005 to 21 Oct 2026
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2026 1

  1. read the blog

2020 12

  1. Skylines of the FutureCities: Skylines is bound to have a sequel sooner or later. Where can this series go next, and what changes would I like to see?
  2. Civilization VII'm a very casual fan of the series, but I gave Civilization VI a look to see what was up with this nuclear war simulator.
  3. Please Help I Can’t Stop Playing Cities: SkylinesWhat makes this borderline indie title so much better than the AAA juggernauts that came before?
  4. Revisiting a Dead EngineI wanted to take the file format of a late 90s shooter and read it in modern-day Unity. This is the result.
  5. Silver Sable SucksThis version of Silver Sable is poorly designed, horribly written, and placed in the game for all the wrong reasons.
  6. Bethesda’s Launcher is Everything You ExpectFrom the company that brought us Fallout 76 comes a storefront / Steam competitor. It's a work of perfect awfulness. This is a monument to un-usability and anti-features.
  7. The Gameplay is the StorySome advice to game developers on how to stop ruining good stories with bad cutscenes.
  8. This Scene Breaks a CharacterSmall changes to the animations can have a huge impact on how the audience interprets a scene.
  9. Stop Asking Me to Play Dark Souls!An unhinged rant where I maybe slightly over-reacted to the water torture of Souls evangelism.
  10. Bethesda NEVER Understood FalloutLet's count up the ways in which Bethesda has misunderstood and misused the Fallout property.
  11. Rage 2The game was a dud, and I'm convinced a big part of that is due to the way the game leaned into its story. Its terrible, cringe-inducing story.
  12. The Brilliance of Mass EffectWhat is "Domino Worldbuilding" and how did it help to make Mass Effect one of the most interesting settings in modern RPGs?

2019 11

  1. The Best of 2019I called 2019 "The Year of corporate Dystopia". Here is a list of the games I thought were interesting or worth talking about that year.
  2. Gamers Aren’t ToxicThis is a horrible narrative that undermines the hobby through crass stereotypes. The hobby is vast, gamers come from all walks of life, and you shouldn't judge ANY group by its worst members.
  3. Who Broke the In-Game Economy?Why are RPG economies so bad? Why are shopkeepers so mercenary, why are the prices so crazy, and why do you always end up a gazillionaire by the end of the game? Can't we just have a sensible balanced economy?
  4. The Dumbest CutsceneThis is it. This is the dumbest cutscene ever created for a AAA game. It's so bad it's simultaneously hilarious and painful. This is "The Room" of video game cutscenes.
  5. TitleWhat’s Inside Skinner’s Box?What is a skinner box, how does it interact with neurotransmitters, and what does it have to do with shooting people in the face for rare loot?
  6. I Was Wrong About Borderlands 3I really thought one thing, but then something else. There's a bunch more to it, but you'll have to read the article.
  7. RaytracingRaytracing is coming. Slowly. Eventually. What is it and what will it mean for game development?
  8. ControlA wild game filled with wild ideas that features fun puzzles and mind-blowing environments. It has a great atmosphere, and one REALLY annoying flaw with its gameplay.
  9. What is Vulkan?What is this Vulkan stuff? A graphics engine? A game engine? A new flavor of breakfast cereal? And how is it supposed to make PC games better?
  10. Programming VexationsHere is a 13 part series where I talk about programming games, programming languages, and programming problems.
  11. The Best of 2018I called 2018 "The Year of Good News". Here is a list of the games I thought were interesting or worth talking about that year.

2018 9

  1. Spider-ManA game I love. It has a solid main story and a couple of really obnoxious, cringy, incoherent side-plots in it. What happened here?
  2. A Telltale AutopsyWhat lessons can we learn from the abrupt demise of this once-impressive games studio?
  3. Grand Theft Auto RetrospectiveThis series began as a cheap little 2D overhead game and grew into the most profitable entertainment product ever made. I have a love / hate relationship with the series.
  4. Punishing The Internet for SharingWhy make millions on your video game when you could be making HUNDREDS on frivolous copyright claims?
  5. This is Why We Can’t Have Short CriticismHere's how this site grew from short essays to novel-length quasi-analytical retrospectives.
  6. How I Plan To Rule This Dumb IndustryHere is how I'd conquer the game-publishing business. (Hint: NOT by copying EA, 2K, Activision, Take-Two, or Ubisoft.)
  7. Charging More for a Worse ProductNo, game prices don't "need" to go up. That's not how supply and demand works. Instead, the publishers need to be smarter about where they spend their money.
  8. Wolfenstein IIThis is a massive step down in story, gameplay, and art design when compared to the 2014 soft reboot. Yet critics rated this one much higher. What's going on here?
  9. The Death of Half-LifeValve still hasn't admitted it, but the Half-Life franchise is dead. So what made these games so popular anyway?

2017 17

  1. The Best of 2017My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2017.
  2. Another PC Golden Age?Is it real? Is PC gaming returning to its former glory? Sort of. It's complicated.
  3. Secret of Good SecretsSometimes in-game secrets are fun and sometimes they're lame. Here's why.
  4. Batman v. Superman Wasn't All BadIt's not a good movie, but it was made with good intentions and if you look closely you can find a few interesting ideas.
  5. Are Lootboxes Gambling?Obviously they are. Right? Actually, is this another one of those sneaky hard-to-define things?
  6. Ludonarrative DissonanceWhat is this silly word, why did some people get so irritated by it, and why did it fall out of use?
  7. The Disappointment EngineNo Man's Sky is a game seemingly engineered to create a cycle of anticipation and disappointment.
  8. Could Have Been GreatHere are four games that could have been much better with just a little more work.
  9. A Lack of Vision and LeadershipPeople fault EA for being greedy, but their real sin is just how terrible they are at it.
  10. Borderlands SeriesA look at the main Borderlands games. What works, what doesn't, and where the series can go from here.
  11. Why I Hated Resident Evil 4Ever wonder how seemingly sane people can hate popular games? It can happen!
  12. Steam Summer BluesThis mess of dross, confusion, and terrible UI design is the storefront the big publishers couldn't beat? Amazing.
  13. Diablo III RetrospectiveWe were so upset by the server problems and real money auction that we overlooked just how terrible everything else is.
  14. Denuvo and the "Death" of PiracyDenuvo videogame DRM didn't actually kill piracy, but it did stop it for several months. Here's what we learned from that.
  15. Zenimax vs. FacebookThis series explores the troubled history of VR and the strange lawsuit between Zenimax publishing and Facebook.
  16. Fixing Match 3For one of the most popular casual games in existence, Match 3 is actually really broken. Until one developer fixed it.
  17. Batman: Arkham CityA look back at one of my favorite games. The gameplay was stellar, but the underlying story was clumsy and oddly constructed.

2016 18

  1. The Best of 2016My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2016.
  2. Object-Oriented DebateThere are two major schools of thought about how you should write software. Here's what they are and why people argue about it.
  3. What is Vulkan?There's a new graphics API in town. What does that mean, and why do we need it?
  4. Crash Dot ComBack in 1999, I rode the dot-com bubble. Got rich. Worked hard. Went crazy. Turned poor. It was fun.
  5. Was it a Hack?A big chunk of the internet went down in October of 2016. What happened? Was it a hack?
  6. Dead or Alive 5 Last RoundI'm not surprised a fighting game has an absurd story. I just can't figure out why they bothered with the story at all.
  7. Lost Laughs in Leisure Suit LarryWhy was this classic adventure game so funny in the 80's, and why did it stop being funny?
  8. Shamus Plays WOWEver wondered what's in all those quest boxes you've never bothered to read? Get ready: They're more insane than you might expect.
  9. Deus Ex and The Treachery of LabelsDeus Ex Mankind Divided was a clumsy, tone-deaf allegory that thought it was clever, and it managed to annoy people of all political stripes.
  10. The Biggest Game EverJust how big IS No Man's Sky? What if you made a map of all of its landmass? How big would it be?
  11. Final Fantasy XA game about the ghost of an underwater football player who travels through time to save the world from a tick that controls kaiju satan. Really.
  12. The Mistakes DOOM Didn't MakeHow did this game avoid all the usual stupidity that ruins remakes of classic titles?
  13. Marvel's Civil WarTeam Cap or Team Iron Man? More importantly, what basis would you use for making that decision?
  14. This Game is Too Videogame-yWhat's wrong with a game being "too videogameish"?
  15. The No Politics RuleHere are 6 reasons why I forbid political discussions on this site. #4 will amaze you. Or not.
  16. In Defense of CrunchCrunch-mode game development isn't good, but sometimes it happens for good reasons.
  17. The Opportunity CrunchNo, brutal, soul-sucking, marriage-destroying crunch mode in game development isn't a privilege or an opportunity. It's idiocy.
  18. Shamus Plays LOTROAs someone who loves Tolkein lore and despises silly MMO quests, this game left me deeply conflicted.

2015 14

  1. The Best of 2015My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2015.
  2. Why The Christmas Shopping Season is Worse Every YearEveryone hates Black Friday sales. Even retailers! So why does it exist?
  3. Mass Effect RetrospectiveA novel-sized analysis of the Mass Effect series that explains where it all went wrong. Spoiler: It was long before the ending.
  4. Why Batman Can't KillHis problem isn't that he's dumb, the problem is that he bends the world he inhabits.
  5. Blistering Stupidity of Fallout 3Yeah, this game is a classic. But the story is idiotic, incoherent, thematically confused, and patronizing.
  6. What is Piracy?It seems like a simple question, but it turns out everyone has a different idea of right and wrong in the digital world.
  7. The Strange Evolution of OpenGLSometimes software is engineered. Sometimes it grows organically. And sometimes it's thrown together seemingly at random over two decades.
  8. Programming Language for GamesGame developer Jon Blow is making a programming language just for games. Why is he doing this, and what will it mean for game development?
  9. Overused Words in Game TitlesI scoured the Steam database to figure out what words were the most commonly used in game titles.
  10. Do It Again, StupidOne of the highest-rated games of all time has some of the least interesting gameplay.
  11. Playstation 3What was the problem with the Playstation 3 hardware and why did Sony build it that way?
  12. Netscape 1997What did web browsers look like 20 years ago, and what kind of crazy features did they have?
  13. The Best of 2014My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2014.
  14. Project Button MasherI teach myself music composition by imitating the style of various videogame soundtracks. How did it turn out? Listen for yourself.

2014 8

  1. Dear Hollywood: Do a Mash RebootSince we're rebooting everything, MASH will probably come up eventually. Here are some casting suggestions.
  2. The Gradient of Plot HolesMost stories have plot holes. The failure isn't that they exist, it's when you notice them while immersed in the story.
  3. TrekrospectiveA look back at Star Trek, from the Original Series to the Abrams Reboot.
  4. Top 64 VideogamesLists of 'best games ever' are dumb and annoying. But like a self-loathing hipster I made one anyway.
  5. Juvenile and ProudYes, this game is loud, crude, childish, and stupid. But it it knows what it wants to be and nails it. And that's admirable.
  6. Internet News is All WrongWhy is internet news so bad, why do people prefer celebrity fluff, and how could it be made better?
  7. Patreon!Why Google sucks, and what made me switch to crowdfunding for this site.
  8. The Best of 2013My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2013.

2013 10

  1. Batman: Arkham OriginsA breakdown of how this game faltered when the franchise was given to a different studio.
  2. How to ForumDear people of the internet: Please stop doing these horrible idiotic things when you talk to each other.
  3. Good Robot Dev BlogAn ongoing series where I work on making a 2D action game from scratch.
  4. Quakecon Keynote 2013 AnnotatedAn interesting but technically dense talk about gaming technology. I translate it for the non-coders.
  5. Starcraft 2: Rush AnalysisI write a program to simulate different strategies in Starcraft 2, to see how they compare.
  6. Philosophy of ModerationThe comments on most sites are a sewer of hate, because we're moderating with the wrong goals in mind.
  7. Twelve YearsEven allegedly smart people can make life-changing blunders that seem very, very obvious in retrospect.
  8. id Software Coding StyleWhen the source code for Doom 3 was released, we got a look at some of the style conventions used by the developers. Here I analyze this style and explain what it all means.
  9. Linux vs. WindowsFinally, the age-old debate has been settled.
  10. The Best of 2012My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2012.

2012 12

  1. Overthinking ZombiesLet's ruin everyone's fun by listing all the ways in which zombies can't work, couldn't happen, and don't make sense.
  2. Trusting the SystemHow do you know the rules of the game are what the game claims? More importantly, how do the DEVELOPERS know?
  3. Quakecon 2012 AnnotatedAn interesting but technically dense talk about gaming technology. I translate it for the non-coders.
  4. Spec Ops: The LineA videogame that judges its audience, criticizes its genre, and hates its premise. How did this thing get made?
  5. Game at the BottomWhy spend millions on visuals that are just a distraction from the REAL game of hotbar-watching?
  6. Artless in AlderaanPeople were so worried about the boring gameplay of The Old Republic they overlooked just how boring and amateur the art is.
  7. Project OctantA programming project where I set out to make a Minecraft-style world so I can experiment with Octree data.
  8. Video Compression Gone WrongHow does image compression work, and why does it create those ugly spots all over some videos and not others?
  9. Mass Effect 3 Ending DeconstructionDid you dislike the ending to the Mass Effect trilogy? Here's my list of where it failed logically, thematically, and tonally.
  10. The Witch WatchMy first REAL published book, about a guy who comes back from the dead due to a misunderstanding.
  11. The Loot LotteryWhat makes the gameplay of Borderlands so addictive for some, and what does that have to do with slot machines?
  12. Joker's Last LaughDid you anticipate the big plot twist of Batman: Arkham City? Here's all the ways the game hid that secret from you while also rubbing your nose in it.

2011 7

  1. Skyrim Thieves GuildThe Thieves Guild quest in Skyrim is a vortex of disjointed plot-holes, contrivances, and nonsense.
  2. The Best of 2011My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2011.
  3. Dead IslandA stream-of-gameplay review of Dead Island. This game is a cavalcade of bugs and bad design choices.
  4. AutoblographyThe story of me. If you're looking for a picture of what it was like growing up in the seventies, then this is for you.
  5. Quakecon 2011 Keynote AnnotatedAn interesting but technically dense talk about gaming technology. I translate it for the non-coders.
  6. Project FrontierA programming project where I set out to make a gigantic and complex world from simple data.
  7. Crysis 2Crysis 2 has basically the same plot as Half-Life 2. So why is one a classic and the other simply obnoxious and tiresome?

2010 3

  1. Trashing the HeapWhat does it mean when a program crashes, and why does it happen?
  2. Object-Disoriented ProgrammingC++ is a wonderful language for making horrible code.
  3. What Does a Robot Want?No, self-aware robots aren't going to turn on us, Skynet-style. Not unless we designed them to.

2009 5

  1. MMO Population ProblemsComputers keep getting more powerful. So why do the population caps for massively multiplayer games stay about the same?
  2. The Game That Ruined MeBe careful what you learn with your muscle-memory, because it will be very hard to un-learn it.
  3. A Star is BornRemember the superhero MMO from 2009? Neither does anyone else. It was dumb. So dumb I was compelled to write this.
  4. Pixel City Dev BlogAn attempt to make a good looking cityscape with nothing but simple tricks and a few rectangles of light.
  5. Fable IIThe plot of this game isn't just dumb, it's actively hostile to the player. This game hates you and thinks you are stupid.

2008 9

  1. Silent Hill Turbo HD III was trying to make fun of how Silent Hill had lost its way but I ended up making fun of fighting games. Whatever.
  2. Tenpenny TowerBethesda felt the need to jam a morality system into Fallout 3, and they blew it. Good and evil make no sense and the moral compass points sideways.
  3. Silent Hill OriginsHere is a long look at a game that tries to live up to a big legacy and fails hilariously.
  4. PC Gaming Golden AgeIt's not a legend. It was real. There was a time before DLC. Before DRM. Before crappy ports. It was glorious.
  5. Games and the Fear of DeathWhy killing you might be the least scary thing a game can do.
  6. The Truth About PiracyWhat are publishers doing to fight piracy and why is it all wrong?
  7. Hardware ReviewSo what happens when a SOFTWARE engineer tries to review hardware? This. This happens.
  8. Starcraft: Bot FightLet's do some scripting to make the Starcraft AI fight itself, and see how smart it is. Or isn't.
  9. PC Hardware is ToastThis is why shopping for graphics cards is so stupid and miserable.

2007 4

  1. The Middle AgesWould you have survived in the middle ages?
  2. Grand Theft RailroadGrand Theft Auto is a lousy, cheating jerk of a game.
  3. Best. Plot Twist. Ever.Few people remember BioWare's Jade Empire, but it had a unique setting and a really well-executed plot twist.
  4. The Plot-Driven DoorYou know how videogames sometimes do that thing where it's preposterously hard to go through a simple door? This one is really bad.

2006 7

  1. Seven SpringsThe true story of three strange days in 1989, when the last months of my adolescence ran out and the first few sparks of adulthood appeared.
  2. DM of the RingsBoth a celebration and an evisceration of tabletop roleplaying games, by twisting the Lord of the Rings films into a D&D game.
  3. Good to be the King?Which would you rather be: A king in the middle ages, or a lower-income laborer in the 21st century?
  4. Silent Hill 2 Plot AnalysisA long-form analysis on one of the greatest horror games ever made.
  5. Resident Evil 4Who is this imbecile and why is he wandering around Europe unsupervised?
  6. Self-Balancing GameplayThere's a wonderful way to balance difficulty in RPGs, and designers try to prevent it. For some reason.
  7. If Star Wars Was Made in 2006?Imagine if the original Star Wars hadn't appeared in the 1970's, but instead was pitched to studios in 2006. How would that turn out?

2005 1

  1. D&D CampaignWAY back in 2005, I wrote about a D&D campaign I was running. The campaign is still there, in the bottom-most strata of the archives.

Undated 5

  1. Free RadicalThe product of fandom run unchecked, this novel began as a short story and grew into something of a cult hit.
  2. Spoiler WarningA video Let's Play series I collaborated on from 2009 to 2017.
  3. The Terrible New ThingFidget spinners are ruining education! We need to... oh, never mind the fad is over. This is not the first time we've had a dumb moral panic.
  4. Black Desert OnlineThis Korean title would be the greatest MMO ever made if not for the horrendous monetization system. And the embarrassing translation. And the terrible progression. And the developer's general apathy towards its western audience.
  5. Bad and Wrong Music LessonsA music lesson for people who know nothing about music, from someone who barely knows anything about music.