Warning: PS3 firmware 4.45 crashing consoles
Dragon's Prophet preview: how to catch your dragon
Report: Respawn Entertainment co-founder left due to personal conflict
Oculus Rift secures $16 million in venture capital
Max Payne 3 slowly dives onto Mac this week
Weekend Confirmed Episode 27
by Garnett Lee, Sep 24, 2010 12:00pm PDTAfter a couple of far-flung weeks with shows from PAX and the International special, Garnett, Brian, and Jeff reunite in the studio, and just in time too because they've got a whole lot to cover. Whatcha' Been Playin? gets things started with some mopping up from TGS including The Third Birthday, Ni no Kuni, and a couple others. Valkyria Chronicles 2 and the upcoming 3 which was also at TGS get some love. And all three of the guys have tales of global conquest from late night Civ 5 sessions. The Warning poses the question of whether the quest to westernize has become a distraction to Japanese game development and, of course, your Gran Turismo 5 responses get their due. Lara's continuing co-op struggles, the apparent cancellation of Milo, and naturally some Halo:Reach news highlight the Front Page to wrap it all up.
Weekend Confirmed Ep. 27 - 09/24/2010
Subscription Links:
- Subscribe to Weekend Confirmed in iTunes
- Weekend Confirmed is also available in the Zune Marketplace
- Subscribe to Weekend Confirmed via RSS
We've got a handy player to listen to the show right here on the site if you like:
Listen to Weekend Confirmed Episode 27 (player window will pop-up)
And if you're on GameCenter, you can play the show here:
Download Weekend Confirmed Episode 27
Weekend Confirmed comes in four segments to make it easy to listen to in segments or all at once. Here's the timing for this week's episode:
Whatcha' Been Playin: Start: 00:00:00 End: 00:34:27
Whatcha' Been Playin and Cannata-ford a New Game: Start: 00:35:53 End: 01:04:20
The Warning: Start: 01:05:30 End: 01:45:06
Music Break featuring Ongaku's "Good Times" Start: 01:45:06 End: 01:47:30
The Front Page: Start: 01:47:30 End: 02:23:31
Music Break this week features Ongaku ("music" in Japanese) from Lisbon, Portugal, with the track "Good Times". Influenced by Yellow Magic Orchestra, disco, heavy funk, and synths, he's currently focused on making some tracks and finishing a degree in animation. For more check out Ongaku on MySpace or Soundcloud.
Original music in the show by Del Rio. Get his latest single, Small Town Hero on iTunes and check out more at his Facebook page.
Jeff can also be seen on The Totally Rad Show. New episodes come out weekly on Tuesday.
Our Official Facebook Weekend Confirmed Page is coming along now so add us to your Facebook routine. We'll be keeping you up with the latest on the show there as well.
Comments
Garnett, your comments about going back to Red Dead got me thinking. I know you are not finished yet, but I would like to ask a question in advance. No spoilers, I promise :) I'd love to know what Jeff and Brian think about my experience as well.
I played the crap out of Red Dead... I got the 100% completion achievement and everything. I was completely engrossed in the characters and story. As you said, it is an incredibly engaging experience.
BUT.... after finishing the game, I spent a week or two playing some Mass Effect 2 DLC and a few other games. I fully intended to go back to Red Dead, but every time I sat down with the intention of playing it, I just couldn't find any motivation. I've spent a lot of time thinking about it, and I've come to realize that Red Dead was a truly unique experience for me: It is the only game I've ever played that entertained and engaged me from start to finish through story alone.
The experience of living as John Marsdon was incredible, but as soon as I reached the end of the story, that was it for me. Looking back at the 50-plus hours I poured into the game, I cannot think of a single moment of truly entertaining GAMEPLAY. Every single task I completed in that game was done to progress the story.... not because it was actually fun for me.
It is a game that impresses the player with the wealth of different things you are "able" to do.... but are any of these things actually fun?
Is hunting and skinning animals actually fun, or do we do it just to earn money/achievements and complete tasks?
Are the many mini-games actually fun, or are they in fact clumsy, tedious, and repetative... only bareable because of the change of pace they represent?
Are the gang hideouts fun and exciting, or simply a matter of spamming the left trigger to cycle the auto lock between targets over and over and over?
The most suprising thing to me is that I have never been the kind of gamer who invests large amounts of time into a game purely for story.... If I am going to dedicate 40 or 50 hours to a game, it is only because I find the gameplay engaging and fun. Yet, for me, Red Dead pulled it off. In some ways, I find this to be the game's single most impressive achievement. At the same time, it makes it difficult for me to consider it as a contender for game of the year, when I have absolutley no desire to play it ever again.
Garnett, I would love to know what you think after you've finished the game, and allowed a little time to pass.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 10 replies.
I also played RDR on expert shooting setting, so the skill was certainly there for me.
I feel they are both 9+ classics that few games can come close to.
All that said, I give my own personal-preference-hat-tip to ME2 for several reasons:
1) CRPGs started out very complicated for the most part. This suited my taste, but was too much for the more typical gamer. The path to transforming the RPG feel into an action game effectively was a long one, and I feel that ME2 finally pulled this off. The game has the full smoothness of a great action game, while retaining nearly every essential feature of an RPG (albeit in a highly dillute form).
2) I like to have an "adventure party". ME2's amazingly innovative party control system allowed me to pay full bore without a lot of pausing, switching tediously between characters, etc.
3) I like progressing my character over time and feeling the growth of abilities and skills. ME2 has does this in a satisfying (although limited) manner.
Long story short, I like the RPG elements of ME2, which RDR lacks.
As far as the story goes, I'd actually give the honors to RDR... great story! ME2's story was quite good, but it also felt a bit tired and predictable. The RDR subject matter is vastly more unique for computer gaming story-telling.
You must be logged in to post.