Played - Epsiode 9
Published by Mark October 25th, 2006 in Main Page.
Hello everyone! Here is Episode 9 for your listening pleasure. 
In this episode we talk about Sony’s recent official news about the PS3’s accessory pricing, launch “window” games, it’s on-line service, and Chris’ experience playing some of these games recently at Sony’s “Gamer’s Day”. Also, some comments from 3DRealm’s CEO Scott Miller about Duke Nuk’em from the Next-Gen Podcast, Elizabeth’s Gadgetry, Listener mail, and of course “What we’re playing” which includes Bully, Cooking Mama, Lumines and more.
Should be a ton of fun!
Elizabeth’s Gadgetry:
Micro-Tech™ 6-In-1
Utili-Key® 6-In-1
Well, it appears that iTunes isnt palying since with our feed (again), and doesnt like how we’re handling the M4A file format.
I’m currently in the process of converting and uploading the MP3.
Ok, got the file converted and uploading now.
OK ITS UP AND RUNNING!
1) I tested the mp3 playback myself and no chipmunks.
2) If your feed is still screwed and doesnt download or work properly in iTunes, then delete the feed and resubscribe by clicking here:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=189332948
3)Sorry about the mix-up. I’m sooooo done with this blasted M4A format.
Enjoy guys!
Chris you didn’t mention SCARFACE in the Podcast (when talking about games that you played).
I am (I think) on the last challenge/level in Scarface, and hope to finish it soon. But it’s such a bitch.
One of those challenges where you have to get to the end after a lot of long battles, and if you die you have to start from the beginning. No checkpoint in this one.
Also, Chris I am glad you are enjoying “Bully”.
I bought my first PS2 ever, and Rockstar’s “Bully” was the first (and currently only) game I own and have played.
I am about 17% through.
Basically bought “Bully” sight unseen. I heard it was Rockstar’s next great game, and took a chance.
Got the “Special Edition” with the cool “school locker” packaging and dodgeball inside.
Actually, that was me playing Bully -not Chris.
I havent played Scareface yet, but it does look pretty interesting….but maybe a bit on the dull side?
I wish I could post on the shack from work -but it’s blocked, so I’m stuck hopeing people post here, heh.
Oh….and the special edition sounds pretty funny!
Er yeah I meant Chris playing Scarface (he wrote a review on the Shack)
And Mark playing Bully
Scarface is definitely not dull. It’s the most action-packed open world game I have played, including all of the “GTA” games. (I beat GT3 twice, GTA Vice City twice, and GTA San Andreas once all this year).
I don’t find the story as engaging as the GTA games. It’s a lot more focus on action and weapon combat. And it’s freaking crazy.
Oh crap, don’t tell me this. You’re going to convince me that I need to play it.
So you’re 17% through Bully -how are you enjoying it? Personally, I cannot wait to start exploring the world outside the school campus.
If you look at the map, some of those locations are going to be crazy fun (well, I imagine they will be). With locations like an old folks home and a comic books store….oh man…..
A few comments on the podcast topics.
My big problem with paying for content that you can unlock in a game anyway, like in the Tiger Woods example, is that it incentiveizes companies to make the content incredibly hard to unlock to begin with? The bean counters aren’t dumb, and they’ll put pressure on the developers to make it almost impossible to get the gold medal for that last race, or to come in 5 under par for that last course. So not only will we be paying for content that should have been in a game anyway with some microtransactions, but then we won’t even be able to play games the way they should be able to be played because the difficulty sliders will be pushed ever higher to force gamers into microtransactions. The end result is that we’ll see the most unscrupulous companies designing games with so many additional revenue hooks in them that the final game will not only cost us $100 after all the microtransactions, but we’ll be choked with ads as we play. And probably be forced to watch ads as we download the content that should have been in the game in the first place.
I personally decided not to get 2142 because of the in-game ads, but a conpany like EA doesn’t care about a few gamers boycotting their games. If they can get higher margin even with fewer games sold due to the advertising revenue, what do they care how many copies they sell? The idea of a backlash as mentioned in the podcast will never happen I predict. Lets say you’re the CEO of a company, and your managers are all getting too good of compensation for your taste. Well, you massively restructure the compensation package and what happens? Half the managers quit. Great. Then you hire new managers in at reduced salary with the new compensation package, none of whom complain because they don’t know any better. So not only have you fixed the compensation situation across the whole booard, but you’ve saved all that salary money to boot. It’ll be the same thing with gamers. Even if they lose a generation of gamers to nickle and diming and advertising, so what? The next generation of gamers will come in, be happy to pay $75 for a game and all the microtransactions on top of it all while having every surface in the game advertising Pepsi, because they don’t remember the good ol days like the generation they’ve annoyed right out of the marketplace. Now they have less complaints and more income per game. Mission accomplished.
Also, if people are spending real money for virtual items, how long before the government imposes sales tax on those items? So your shotgun that you just bought for 400 points (that should have been in the game in the first place) will actually cost you 438 points. There’s already a movement in congress to tax transactions that take place in Second Life, since the money in Second Life can be cashed out for $599 US Dollars! Come to think of it though, if you’re paying sales tax on purchasing the Marketplace Points in the first place, then maybe the virtual transactions won’t be able to be taxed as well. So ignore that.
And speaking of horrible audio in video games, how could you guys not mention “Wise fwom your gwaves!”
Haha! That was from Altered Beast, correct? Dude, I loved that damn game.
Does anyone remember “Brouble Bribble!”? Come on, someone else out there has to remember where that one’s from.
You bring up some interesting points, namely the point about developers being convinced or coaxed into increasing difficulty of games to entice certain gamers into spending some cash on unlocking an item. It’s a scarey thought. We can only hope that developers (at least some of them) will simpily refuse to do so.
As I mentioned in this podcast -it’s amazing how much gaming on consoles has changed once a compitent network infranstructure was introduced. Not all bad, by any means. I certainly enjoy most of Live! and the features it offers.
It’s going to be a very interesting, the next few years, to see where we’re headed because of advertising, consumables, and networking.