Weekend Confirmed Episode 15

Where was the talk about Sin and Punishment: Star Successor I was really looking forward to Garnett's thoughts on it

About the 3DS pricing, I am very certain that it's going to be over $200. Even Michael Pacther's price range is plausible.

It has three cameras (two being used for 3D), better processors for power, and two screens. One screen is, of course, a touch screen, and then a widescreen Sharp parallax barrier screen that isn't consumer friendly. It is going to be really expensive, and Nintendo never sells at a loss.

If people are willing to buy $700 iPhones, then I really think a higher price is going to happen.

Hey, everyone. I have another long question I've been thinking about. I ramble a bit so if you don't want my examples just read the first and last paragraphs and let me know what you think. I'm curious if anyone else here agrees with me on this. Here:

There's something I've been thinking about for a while now. Obviously difficulty in mainstream games has been steadily diminishing ever since the Super Nintendo, partially due to smarter game design and somewhat due to lack of demand from most audiences. I find it interesting that some games seem to strike the balance of finding appropriate difficulty levels by utilizing sandbox game design, or the "make your own fun" approach. This is something I've always loved in games, but many critics seem to either despise it or overlook the possibility of its use due to some weird sort of OCD which inhibits them from playing a game in any way other than the most efficient for beating it.

One of the more notable games to use this technique recently was Splinter Cell Conviction. The game, as I believe Brian pointed out as a criticism on the podcast, is incredibly easy to complete. And frankly, he's right. Staying hidden from guards at a distance is remarkably simple. Combine that with the ability to pull off pistol headshots at a hundred yards and the Mark and Execute mechanic and you have yourself a pretty pathetic game. Initially I was disappointed in this, but upon my second playthrough, I discovered that like the other Splinter Cells before it, Conviction was so much more interesting, challenging, and rewarding to play through without firing a gun. Though it is designed as a core gameplay mechanic, playing through the game without using the Mark and Execute was much more fun. Sam's arsenal of gadgets and moves suddenly become so much more useful and engaging. The level design suddenly seemed much more complex and well thought out. It seemed like the developers intentionally designed the game before throwing in that "noob" mechanic.

Something similar happened to me when playing through Bioshock. Like many, I was aware that the easiest, and in terms of efficiency, "best" way to play the game was wildly swinging the wrench with plasmids backing it up. However, with the long list of tools made available to me, playing that way seemed so monotonous and uninteresting. I took my time creeping through Rapture, using telekinesis to throw makeshift bombs into Big Daddies and setting up elaborate traps to spring on unsuspecting Splicers. This was a hell of a lot more enjoyable to me than just mashing the right trigger, but it took a sort of gamer's honor.

I noticed that these sort of games seem to employ an honor rules approach to difficulty. Rather than lazily bumping an enemy's health up and the player's down, or rather than making optional sections of gameplay that are controller-twistingly frustrating, these games seem to add mechanics that can be exploited in times of immediately difficulty. In other words, they give the player a crutch to lean back on. And its up to the player whether to continually fall back on that crutch.

So how does everyone feel about sandbox mechanics and how they effect the challenge of games? Do you feel it is the duty of developers to avoid the use of such simplifying mechanics, or do feel that you can learn to ignore the feature to self-challenge yourself? Is the design lazy or poor in these cases, or does it simply integrate the difficulty curve better into the actual gameplay?

The 3ds will be over $200 dollars for sure. I'm not sure what to do now. I was going to get my son his first handheld (Dsi) for this Christmas but now I'm not so sure???

Just so you guys know, the reason I never posted here is because I never listened to the show, so I never knew you were talking crap about me at the end, like starting around the 2:20 mark. Yup, I never listened to the show, so I would have had no way of knowing, so of course I never posted anything here....wait, what, oh crap...

I'm calling $220 for 3DS price. That way, it'll be £199 here in the UK, and it will seem a liiiittle pricey, but not outside the realms of possibility. The thing is; yes, the 3DS will be sold at a profit, but how much? I think I remember on Listen Up! you guys discussing how much the Wii was worth, and it turned out they were making like $80 on every console they sold. If they make less on each console with the 3DS, perhaps around $20-30, then I think it's certainly possible that it'll launch at that price - it's just never going to drop.

So I'm in the middle of listening to the episode and I hear Brian explaining that PlayStation Plus Automatic Downloads is not system firmware and game patches, just video content and demos.

I assume Sony isn't communicating this stuff sufficiently because in the material I've seen, they describe that, yes indeed, system updates and game data updates are a part of Automatic Downloads.

[Source: http://us.playstation.com/support/systemupdates/ps3/ps3-340-update/index.htm]

This isn't the only podcast where I'm hearing just plain false information about PlayStation Plus. So what's going on? Post-E3 malaise (wouldn't doubt it)? Bad Sony PR (also wouldn't doubt it)?

How about a correction in the next ep. please?

I noticed during the show when talking about Arc Rise everyone was happy to hear that it plays best with the Classic. I think it is short sighted to think that a Move or Wii Remote could not on their own control an RPG. Please hear me out, I am not saying that a developer should try to make a motion controlled RPG, or that every feature of the Remote/Move should be used ( a common developer mistake). I am simply recommending a completely pointer driven RPG. You would navigate the over world by having the character follow the pointer and holding A(or whatever the move equivalent is). Once in battle(assuming they are turn based) you would click on enemies or allies and a context sensitive would appear where you would select an action attack, heal, or whatever. To innovate in the turn based space maybe you could click on more things on the battlefield and have new types of actions like hiding under cover or knocking a tree over on an enemy instead of directly attacking them. I think this would be a comfortable interface as I have found the Wii remote does not need to be held arm outstretched for the pointer to function. I played Metroid with my wrist comfortably rested on my knee. For the lard asses out there this would free up a hand for eating :)

On a more serious note this could make the traditional JRPG an excellent bridge genre. Given that the entire interface conversation would be hold A and your character will follow the cursor and click on things and choose an action a new player would not feel the intimidation of learning what butt ions do what. Furthermore given that they are turn based it gives a player unfamiliar with games enough time to figure it out before taking damage. I have a brother in his late 30s who has not touched a game in years, but now has an interest. We tried him on a shooter and before we could even explain which trigger was which he had been killed. He was immediately turned off and we ended up with more Wii tennis going on that night. Sitting in a turn based battle you could provide all the up front explanation and the game would progress on their schedule.

What do you think?

Amazing show! I just loved it.

Garnett: man are you smooth, you should have a talkshow ;)
Brian: spot on and brilliant as ever.
Jeff: actually showed his dark sides and dissed a few games: great! ;)
Shane: obviously knows his stuff and did good peace-making between Jeff's and Brian's positions on Rage.. yes it looks a bit too much like Borderlands...no that doesn't make it suck.

Don't agree with Shane's comment that the ipad is the future of consoles... Problems include:
-touch screen, as aweome as that tech is, isn't can't provide enough control for many games.
-2 controllers? not possible.

I do agree that touch screens are going to have a huge impact in geneal... my NDSI proved to me how amazing they are.

The talk about Deadly Premonition makes me want to try it, but sadly I can't. I think it's a bummer that it is region locked and can't be played over here (I live in germany). Do you guys know if there are any plans to release it in europe?

Oh, and a really good show, as usual.

Am I nuts or did you guys make Singularity sound more interesting than Crackdown 2? I've been hearing hype for C2 for well over a year now but this game I never heard of before today suddenly has my attention. Maybe I'm just a sucker for time travel.

I have to correct Brian at 1 hour 14 minutes: MW2 and CoD4 are built off of a heavily modified Id Tech 3 (though Activision and Infinity Ward didn't have to credit "Id Technology" in MW2, so perhaps they ported away all of the Id code, or maybe just found an excuse to not have to credit that in the legal text).

Great Weekend Confirmed this week. I agree 100% with buying Rise of Nations and Rise of Legends. Both of those games are so much fun it's not fair. Also it's a plus that they will run on older computers.

Dude! Rise of Nations! Totally agree. To this day it's my favorite strategy game and one of the few that I'm really really good at.

Just wanted to let Jeff know that there are THREE endings to Singularity. Shoot both of them.

Always enjoy ManGod on podcasts. Thanks for another good one guys!

needs a naga man

Shane's great, but he's no Mech Warrior 2.

nintendo could get away with charging $250 for the 3DS but i actually think they wont. im guessing a little over 200. its going to come out right before the holidays and they want everyone to buy one including lots of kids parents. nintendo is traditionally affordable with there releases. i've also been watching that steam sale like a hawk and happened to get 7 games for 30 dollars.

Shane ! Awesome !

Re: Rage's visual style

I don't know if you guys never heard this, but back when they first unveiled the game - and I don't know f I should spoiler this - but they talked about the different parts of the game, and that there would be a massive sort of cataclysmic event about halfway through that would radically change everything about the game world. What it is, I don't know, but they made their MO pretty clear.

I just have to throw this out there. If they do not make Wave Race 64 3D for the 3DS, I'm going to be very disappointed. If they announced this game any time before the system is released, I might be willing to pay more than $250 for it.

Does the price have too be really high on the 3DS? I am not sure. We know that most consoles start out losing money for each one sold, and over time as tech becomes cheaper begin to make money sometimes years down the road. This model has worked for both Microsoft and Sony in the past. Given the extended life the DS has seen, and the amazing sales of the Wii, it's not to difficult to imagine Nintendo would have the war chest in place to finance a launch at a loss just to get the tech in peoples hands. That being said I think $299 is the price point. By the time we see this console launch the ipad will be set for it's next iteration and what is now considered the base model ipad will probably be available for $399 or $349. After all Nintendo did say Apple was their closest competition at this point.

YEs!! Confirmation beastness

Kin has hardly any effect on Microsoft as a whole, the device was solid but launched way to late in the pipe. Windows Phone 7 was always the main focus at Microsoft.

Verizon made Kin DOA.

"At some point prior to launch, the Kin team knew it was screwed. We've confirmed that Verizon did, in fact, pull the rug out from under them -- the planned data pricing had changed and become much more expensive, which was supposed to be one of Kin's top selling points." - engadget

Shane's desciption of "Deadly Premonition" is dead on. It does have some "Shenmue" vibes for sure. I thought it was a mix of that and Silent Hill with a dash of D2 (the dialogue). And for $20 USD, this game is a steal. I purchased the game WEEK ONE after Destructoid's incredible articles on the game. I have not been disappointed. I have only done the first act completely, but the game itself will suck you in. It is just too "out there" to be ignored (*looks for a stew pot on the stove in Michael Douglas' kitchen...*). And to confirm, I am a big "Twin Peaks" fan.

i think Garnett said it best in his tweet;

"a man-god appears"

Great Weekend Confirmed as always guys. But for those who liked the sound of the music break the song sampled Grizzly Bear's Two Weeks

I do want to say, Jeff, you really NEED to make finishing Red Dead Redemption a priority (well, a priority in terms of playing games). Don't let it get lost in the shuffle. It is in my top 5 favorite endings ever to a video game. I have a feeling you will adore the last couple hours (which plays like an epilogue to a novel). And as for the stuff diamondspider and I were talking about video game stories with depth, Red Dead has that, right up through the end.

SHANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE AND GARNETT BACK TOGETHER WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

Sorry, I am a little giddy.

And has a full Front Page to close things out...

I can has Front Page?

Shane finally made it. Cool. This should be good...

Oh, and how long does it take for the contest winner's prizes to ship? I was curious. Thank you!