Affectionate Discourse Oratorio Tangram

Affectionate Discourse Oratorio Tangram: Episode 7 - Starfield

Unfortunately for all concerned, Tony Coles embarks on a marathon waffle about Bethesda's much-maligned open-worlder, Starfield. With apologies to everyone, except Mr David Steer. Timestamps (which could be wrong): 0:00:00 - Intro and initial overview waffle 1:00:00 - Interstitial placeholder vibes followed by conceptual inconsistency as a brand virtue 1:22:00 - The games that lead me to Starfield, wild tangent spectacular 2:53:00 - Spaceships and houses: the Bethesda difference 3:35:40 - WEAPONS with an addendum for more WEAPONS 4:12:00 - Factions, stories, spoilers There are no other notes other than listen to this amazing podcast with one of the genuine founders of CGI, James F Blinn: https://www.fxguide.com/fxfeatured/founders-series-industry-legend-jim-blinn/ Many thanks to David Steer for bringing this to my attention. Tony has written about Starfield a lot of times. Just go to the archive and search for it, should you give a shit: https://affectionatediscourse.substack.com/archive [https://affectionatediscourse.substack.com/archive] Find Tony Coles here: https://bsky.app/profile/tontcoles.bsky.social [https://bsky.app/profile/tontcoles.bsky.social] And https://bsky.app/profile/affectionatedisco.bsky.social [https://bsky.app/profile/affectionatedisco.bsky.social] Or email him abuse at: affectionatediscourse@gmail.com ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Affectionate Discourse Oratorio Tangram: Episode 6

In a novel twist, Tony Coles launches an all-out assault on a game he didn't enjoy in 2025 while heaping further praise on one he forgot about. Capped off with a long ramble about children's science fiction/fact books published between 1978 and 1984, this episode forms an unholy alliance with the extended Buck Rogers monologue from the previous episode. Read the Star Wars Outlaws review here [https://affectionatediscourse.substack.com/p/star-wars-outlaws-the-definitive?utm_source=publication-search]. Read the Heat Signature one here. [https://affectionatediscourse.substack.com/p/heat-signature-the-definitive-review?utm_source=publication-search] And I love-lettered X-Wing here. [https://affectionatediscourse.substack.com/p/star-wars-x-wing-the-definitive-review?utm_source=publication-search] Read about the Usborne World of the Unknown here [https://usborne.com/gb/blog/post/behind-the-scenes-at-usborne/how-usborne-world-of-the-unknown-books-shaped-the-lives-of-a-generation], with the World of the Future here [https://usborne.com/gb/blog/post/usborne-news/the-book-that-changed-my-life-usborne-s-book-of-the-future]. This blog [https://2warpstoneptune.com/2014/03/04/usborne-publishing-the-world-of-the-future-future-cities-1979/] has more detail on Future Cities, showing off some lovely illo. The Terran Trade Authority books can be seen here [http://www.terrantradeauthority.com/tta-books-2/], and let's finish with a link to the website of my favourite sci-fi artist, Peter Elson [https://www.peterelson.co.uk/gallery/category.php?cat=11]. Errata for the addendum! It's not Neil Shreeve, you moron, it's Mark Shreeve and the tune is called Myriad Of Colours [ https://youtube.com/watch?v=sXc3XbyfhtE&si=7AoOzW_3tN_lNxsj]: ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Affectionate Discourse Oratorio Tangram: Episode 5

After an extremely long and completely unwarranted break, Tony Coles returns to waffle and swear about Obsidian's twin open-world RPGs. Read the Affectionate Discourse [https://affectionatediscourse.substack.com/] stuff on Outer Worlds 2 here [https://affectionatediscourse.substack.com/p/the-outer-worlds-2-the-definitive], here [https://affectionatediscourse.substack.com/p/the-spirit-of-the-outer-worlds-2] and here [https://affectionatediscourse.substack.com/p/the-outer-worlds-2s-ending-the-definitive]! Read about Avowed here [https://affectionatediscourse.substack.com/p/avowed-the-definitive-review] and here [https://affectionatediscourse.substack.com/p/avoweds-last-maps-the-definitive]. Beautifully, Duck Dodgers can we watched in full here [https://www.reddit.com/r/looneytunes/comments/198k1de/duck_dodgers_in_the_24%C2%BD_century/]! After all the references to movies and TVs I drop in this episode, Duck Dodgers is 100% the one you should watch. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Affectionate Discourse Oratorio Tangram: Episode 4

In direct violation of several court orders, Tony tracks down ex-Journo and F2P expert Mark Sorrell and harasses him at length, spoiling what would have been a really pleasant walk in the country. We chat about AI for the most part, and how we see it might influence and affect videogames in general. Expect slammed dynamics (sloppy normalisation), some panting (due to exercise), strong opinions (due to gross ignorance on my part) and swearing (par for the course). Tony wrote about AI once and has seemingly learned nothing since, and you can read it here [https://affectionatediscourse.substack.com/p/generative-ai-the-definitive-review]. Mark writes about AI and other things right here [https://marksorrell.substack.com/]. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Affectionate Discourse Oratorio Tangram: Episode 3

Once again, Tony Coles waffles indulgently about games he loves and loathes with a surprising density of swearing, even by his usual standards. This one is all about the niche, featuring discussion of Shmups R-Type Final 3 Ultimate, Gradius V and the historical compilation, Gradius Origins. Also mentioned for extra cool points are Blazing Star and Progear. Tony uses the second half to ramble about WH Smiths as an excuse to smuggle in a bit about the SID chip and its tunes while utterly fumbling its model number like a rank amateur. He ends up losing his shit, Ed Zitron style, over the death of physical games and arguing that everybody should be ransacking charity shops of DVDs because you can buy a HDMI-out player in B&M for £25 [https://www.bmstores.co.uk/products/goodmans-hdmi-dvd-player-386548]. Read about R-Type Final 3 Ultimate here [https://affectionatediscourse.substack.com/p/how-to-play-r-type-final-3-evolved] and here [https://affectionatediscourse.substack.com/p/the-discreet-charm-of-the-filler]. Read about the death of GAME here! [https://affectionatediscourse.substack.com/p/game-the-shop-the-definitive-review] Listen to the SIDtune mix right here [https://soundcloud.com/affectionate-discourse/sid_mix_reeq]. Also read everything on Affectionate Discourse [https://affectionatediscourse.substack.com/], because he needs the likes and shares. Email affectionatediscourse@gmail.com or abuse him at length on Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/tontcoles.bsky.social]. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.