The prices are great too, $5.99-$9.99 is a great price point, a much better spend than an extra hat or map nonsense in the form of DLC for modern games..

The “extra features” that come with each game vary in quality, usually not very good but the high quality PDF manuals are nice though. Anyway, it’s the games you should be after..

Looking forward to more releases from them.

(oh seeing Shogo work on a modern PC is a feat in itself..)

Anyway, when you guys going to mention GOG.com? None of you used it yet?

Are the dialects used in Fable considered “lower class” or “ghetto” by your general populous? I forget what the dialect is called, sorry.

And about the Fable games, I don’t think I could ever replay the first one, the voices just drive me mad, that’s saying alot seeing as I am from the UK..
Avoided the second one like the plague, really not interested from what I have seen.

Doesn’t matter. Probably one of those inexplicable internet glitches. I’ll summarize at some point I guess.

* The mini map thing is a funny little quirk I didn’t realize I shared with so many. In my days of Diablo addiction, I had to constantly watch myself from just playing the game through the minimap. It came to a point where I would almost ignore the rest of the game. And yea, I would never go to the next portion of the map without making sure I uncovered every little pixel on the mini map. As you can imagine, unreachable black patches on the mini map — raised terrains, abysses etc — we an absolute nightmare for my neurotic gaming self!

* On the iphone… just the very nature of the device means that even if it sells twice as many as the best selling hand-held, it just won’t be as lucrative a gaming platform. At best, it will work well for the casual gaming market — as everyone already mentioned.

Also, considering its battery replacement system limitations, I can imagine a lot of angry customers in a few years. As gamers use the system more intensely for gaming, the iphone’s battery longevity is bound to suffer. And while users of other phones can easily buy new batteries from local brick and mortar stores, iphone owners have to go through a long and expensive ritual. Again, time will tell how big of a problem this becomes… if at all, but I have a feeling that it will be a big issue.

Personally, I’ve always been suckered into magical multi purpose devices, only to be disappointed in the end. While being able to take pics, play games, and listen to mp3s on single mobile devices is pretty cool, nothing — so far — is a substitute for a cheap digital camera, a cheap mp3 player or a cheap handheld — aside from convenience of course. But other than capturing those random quirky pictures on your cellphone or sending an emergency business related e-mail, I find no other satisfactory uses for the extra features.

And while I don’t use public transportation, I can imagine that if I did, I’d rather be gaming on a proper handheld — even casually — than a device such as the iphone.

* Diablo 3 — lol I was cringing as you read my comment. It sounds a lot worse when you read it out loud. But I love other aspects of Diablo as well, and I love the whole multiplayer experience.

As for my *click click click* comment, I actually didn’t mean I minded the mouse clicking. I meant that I didn’t want the clicking to be monotonous. If you have no variation in the gameplay, then you are left with a whole lot of single purpose clicking — which is what I meant.

* Valve — I know they are developers. I just meant that they take products like Portal and L4D, polish them, and release them under their brand.

OK I didn’t know they put those together from scratch though. Thanks for the info. I actually learned a few things I didn’t know.

I know TF2, Ep2 etc are Valve properties though… of course.

Also, you can’t convince me on the source engine. Sorry.

I actually do think it looks very dated, and to a distracting level. And the sounds etc., are terribly annoying. Some of those sound effects are carrying in from half-life and just need to be redone… it is quite lazy.

But I do love L4D.

*PoP — I played some more of the game and it is still quite good for me, but I am finding it way too easy. I am also turned off by all the “visual aid”. I wish they had at the very least given the option of switching that stuff off.

As for the dialog, it slowly starts to chose its charm. I think the problem is that they were trying to make the prince into this Han Solo style rebellious character etc. The problem is that with not many other characters in the game, his brash attitude becomes more annoying than it should.

After hearing for several people, reading some forum posts and reading your impressions I was very interested in checking out the game for myself. I got my hands on the game yesterday and couldn’t wait to pop it in. Though I only played it for 30 minutes–I’m enthralled with it.

Yes, the game really has a beautiful asthetic but something I don’t see people talking about is the dialog and banter between the two leads (dont know names yet)–I love it! The protagonist reminds me alot of Travis Touchdown from No More Heroes whom I love. Who knew this game would have such fun dialog, eh?

We’ll see how it pans out.

Oh my gosh! It is very very good so far! I’ve played about a couple of hours, and it is just a lot of fun, and not at all the disaster I had expected from the cheesy demo movie. The graphics — which I had been skeptical about — work really well, and everything looks gorgeous. It isn’t just the technical excellence though; the art direction is also very good, and maintains the balance between cartoonish and edgy.

The gameplay has been streamlined from before with a new gimmick, which works surprisingly well. In the past we had the “turn back time” mechanic, which worked better than it had sounded on paper, and here we have a constant magical female companion, who performs rescue acts whenever the acrobatics go wrong. Again, on paper, it sounds horrible, but it works really well, especially when you realize how many hours of loading it saves you. Plus, it helps that the companion is made to look very attractive… well as attractive as a bunch of pixels can look. That’s another thing about the visuals, everything is highly tasteful. The hero is muscular, but he is more Raphael Nadal, than Hulk Hogan. The princess is pretty, but not like the giant funbags sluts that litter the video game landscape. Everything else, including the monsters, environments etc are all very restrained, and not at all over the top. Thankfully, the Persians are also drawn quite respectfully. It is a pity that their voices are more at home with every day America rather than what would have sounded more authentic, but oh well. Other than that, the voice acting is quite good. The game is also surprisingly humorous.

An interesting change is that conversation is triggered by the left trigger. While essential cutscenes start automatically — though they can be skipped –, conversations are optional, and can be activated at any time — and are almost always relevant. Fortunately, so far the dialog is excellent. The characters also have an endearing quality to them, and the protagonist is full of funny/cheesy one liners that are delivered with the right humility, giving them shades of the old Lucas Arts games. Heck, at times, the character reminds me a bit of Peter Parker.

Finally, I come to the combat, which is very good. I’d say that so far it is already deeper and more enjoyable than Sands of Time, or Assassin’s Creed.

Anyway, I am going back to the game, but I want to say that this whole package feels a lot like a Nintendo game. It just has that feeling of quiet dignified excellence to it. Let’s see how it pans out. From what I’ve read, some of the problems rear their ugly head later, but let’s see.

While I finally bought a 360 four months ago, I have essentially been a hardcore PC gamer since the 90s. And I have to say, that PC gaming hit its peak in the late 90s and early 2000 period with games like Baldur’s Gate 2, Deus Ex etc. Those were some great titles with lots of depth and complexity.

Because of the way the mass market works, I feel that most games of today (especially shooters) often feel like they are below their potential simply to appeal to everyone. I hope that doesn’t sound elitist…

Umm.. but yea, L4D is really awesome, and a lot of fun. Its major issue is its pricing. While the “director” works really well at making the levels feel fresh at every playthrough, the game just needs more levels. It feels like a title that should be priced at $20 — especially considering the value of a package like The Orange Box.

Also, does anyone else know how well Far Cry 2 did? I understand it sold a million in three weeks, but things went quiet since.

The best comment of this podcast, was Remo on FC2:

“The subtle restraint in this game was out of control!”

I found that quite funny.

I think next episode we’re (finally!) going to read some listener comments and will include some of yours.

Chris was in a real mood in this one… it was great. It was like listening to the George Carlin of video games journalism..

Also, the best comment of the podcast:

Elizabeth, “you have to jerk it ridiculously hard… upwards…”

I am sorry, I just finished with Season 3 and Season 4 of ‘The Office’, and that Elizabeth comment sounded a lot funnier than it was.

Especially with the Source engine looking so terrible.

On Diablo III, I am actually one of those people afraid of all this streamlining. If you look at a game like Space Siege, it is streamlined to the max. and suffers because of it. You are basically doing nothing in Space Siege, and I am afraid of Diablo heading down a similar — though not as extreme — road.

Stuff like town portals, resurrection penalties etc are all aspects that give the Diablo games character. After all, the actual gameplay in Diablo is quite boring, and it is the tons of extra little stuff that makes the whole experience so unique.

I thought one of the mistakes the developers of Titan Quest made was to streamline so many aspects of their game to an extreme end. When I discovered that I was able to roll back my character and skill point investments, I was quite disappointed. It just made my character feel less unique, and it made the skill point decisions feel less important.

Hell, I still remember taking five hours to roll the perfect character in Baldur’s Gate. I know a lot of people were like that.

I just find all this efficiency to be overrated. All these aspects of the game don’t need streamlining… because they are actually what make the game. If you streamline everything, all you will be left with is a lot of *click*click*click*click*click*click*click*click*click*click*….

Let me put it this way. Would you rather have a nice delicious 500 calorie burger, or would you rather swallow an efficient 500 calorie food pill?

I know it sounds like I am overreacting here, but I just don’t want Diablo to be the soulless affair, that Titan Quest was in terms of gameplay.

Really looking forward to world of goo from all the good mentions, I really don’t know if I want to go with the Wii or the PC version, probally the Wii version as it is the only one that allows other players to partake..
Didn’t know anything about Hinterland until you mentioned it, looks intrestingly addictive.. will keep an eye on it..

THE WIZAAAAAARD!!!! D:<

Sorry for the delay.

I hope you guys can turn this into a proper games site ala gamespot or IGN!

Now in the console space it’s a bigger deal of course, but how many people actually have TVs that can run 1080p? I’ve heard numbers ranging from 12% to 20% of America has any kind of HDTV at all. Let’s assume that after this holiday season that it’s 20%. Of the few people that have HDTVs, the vast, vast majority of them are the early adopters who have sets that only run 720p. Most people in the 1080 range can still only run 1080i. I think it’s a terminally poor business decision to try and shoot for 1080p for a game just for the bullet point, if it means sacrificing framerates or gameplay - especially on the first round of games. Wait for the second generation of games to come out so that the engineers have time to learn how to really schmooze the hardware.

Personally I’ll take 720p with massive AA and Aniso filtering over a 1080p game without those things anyday.

Especially since I don’t have a HDTV and I don’t plan on buying one for quite a while.

Splatterhouse is the game you’re thinking of Mark. An awesome game if you’re into the macabre, but hard as hell, it was like Ghosts-N-Goblins in that there was no health bar, you could take one or two hits before you died. Or, re-died. Since you were animated by the hockey mask and were there to take revenge on all the inside-out monsters for stealing your girlfriend and killing you.

Oh, and if you guys want bad videogame audio, check out http://www.audioatrocities.com. Most of it is terrible localizations (i.e. engrish), like the infamous “…you, the master of unlocking…”

Doom 64 had ‘The Laser Gun’ which by itself was nearly on par in terms of power with the BFG, but the real power in the weapon was that you could upgrade it to triple it’s starting power by finding /really/ well concealed secrets in the game. I think some of the secrets involved finding secrets in prior levels to allow you to find secrets in the levels that contained the upgrades. The end result was a ‘gatling spread laser’ that could sauce the end boss in seconds.

Seriously, how can you guys talk about scary games and not mention Aliens vs. Predator? The second definitely had it’s scary moments, but the first one is the only game I never finished simply because it was so stressful that I couldn’t enjoy it. The opening of the game had you waking up in a base that had already been evacuated because of a ‘problem’. Your XO gets on the radio and tells you “Wake up Marine, you’re in trouble”. Very reminicent of the infirmary scene from Aliens. And then you have to explore these pitch black halls with the constant >bupbupbupbupsquee-squee

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.

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!”

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…..

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.

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!

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.

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.