Killzone: Mercenary shoots onto Vita on September 10
Trion Worlds hit with more layoffs, Defiance team impacted
Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault defending Vita next week
Game & Wario was originally going to be pre-installed on Wii U
The Last of Us digital download lets you start playing sooner
Weekend Confirmed Episode 36: Thanksgiving Holiday Special
by Garnett Lee, Nov 25, 2010 9:00pm PSTGarnett, Brian, and Jeff gather round the studio with Del Rio and Brooklyn in the booth for this Thanksgiving Day special edition of Weekend Confirmed. Along with a little eggnog for holiday spirit, Whatcha' Been Playin? gets the festivities started with a closer look at Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Donkey Kong Country Returns, and then the upcoming Noble maps for Halo:Reach. The Front Page takes the holiday week off. In its place, the rest of the show includes favorite holiday memories, what games come out with the family at the holidays, and your comments on some of the best topics over the past few weeks. And if you're gearing up for gift shopping or already in the thick of it you won't want to miss the final segment which covers some of the best deals and videogame gift ideas.
Weekend Confirmed Ep. 36 - 11/25/2010
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Listen to Weekend Confirmed Episode 36 (player window will pop-up)
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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: 00:30:25
Whatcha' Been Playin and Cannata-ford a New Game: Start: 00:31:30 End: 01:00:23
The Warning: Start: 01:01:33 End: 01:29:02
Music Break featuring "Back": 01:29:02 End: 01:32:20
Holiday Specials: Start: 01:32:20 End: 02:03:58
NFL 'Tailgate': Start: 02:04:56 End: 02:14:36
Music Break this week features "Back" by Ivan Ives. Ivan Ives is a new breed of rapper. Mixing golden-era style beats with synthesizers and innovative song concepts with a skin-tight flow, he brings his truth to the mic with fervor and precision.
Originally splashing onto the scene in late 2007, Ives has manifested a name for himself by garnering multitudes of press and guest appearances. Rolling Stone named him one of the next 40 artists to watch. SPIN named him one of 8 artists you should know about. URB put him in their coveted Next 1000 and CMJ gave him in an artist spotlight. XXL/Scratch said, "don't let his indie rocker persona fool you—this guy can spit." The list goes on. Ives' global clout is further solidified by the co-signers on many of his tracks: The Cool Kids, Black Milk, Tre Hardson (Pharcyde), Percee P, Oh No, Cappadonna (Wu-Tang), O.C. (DITC), 2Mex (Visionaries), Vast Aire (Can Ox), and Fresh The Hitman—his main producer.
Ives' facility with his chosen musical form should come as no surprise considering his immersion over the years in the Wu-Tang Clan, D.I.T.C., and Big L. His professed influences are so inclusive, however, that they extend from the Delfonics, Kraftwerk, and Jefferson Starship to Arvo Part, Bela Bartok, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. The last one is a clue to what IS surprising about Ives‐he was born in Russia. But you'd never know it from listening to his records (or conversing with him); he sounds like a native of Los Angeles, where he's lived most of his life.
For more, check out the official Ivan Ives website and his "All My Life" video.
Original music in the show by Del Rio. Get his latest single, Small Town Hero on iTunes. Check out more, including the Super Mega Worm mix and other mash-ups on his ReverbNation page or Facebook page.
Jeff can also be seen on The Totally Rad Show. They've gone daily so there's a new segment to watch every day of the week!
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
Is it because Black Ops is a "next gen" 3d game? Is it because you actually want to progress through the story and don't want to be bogged down by dying and trying again and again?
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On the issue of timers:
Jeff completely has a point. Yes, TIME LIMITS exist. That was established and beaten to death. No one is saying that they don't exist or that they have no place. What I think Jeff and Garnett were trying to get at was that it seems like developers use time limit clocks as a short cut to create tension. Are there appropriate times for it? Of course. If you set a bomb and it say you have 5 minutes to get out, then great. Are there times where it's used but ISN'T needed? Yes. With the example of the crashing building, you could use the environment to give you a sense of urgency. It's not realistic to have an EXACT timer on your wrist watch for when a structure will collapse. Instead, use the building itself. Show the strains in the walls get worse. The creaking get much louder. Hear floors above you begin to crumble. Have someone from the outside tell you over a mic, "It's on its last legs, get the fuck out now," when you're cutting it close.
The CONCEPT of being timed is not the issue here, it's how it is PRESENTED.
On the issue of how Call of Duty should change moving forward:
This needs to be said: Brian, we all get how companies function. We've all seen it. We know that the knee jerk reaction from a corporation is to do whatever sold well, regardless of the quality of their products. That's universally understood, but it's not the point of the conversations here. It's good and healthy to acknowledge that realistic probability, but I feel you end up giving companies a pass whenever you touch on this. You'll insist that companies won't do certain things to move forward, that they don't have to because of how the games have already sold, while at the same time saying it's not what you want. If it really isn't what you want, then I urge you to stop building up the already strong and obvious argument of, "Why It Won't Change," and start working on the far more important, "Why It SHOULD Change."
I understand the need for a devil's advocate on these issues, but take care when doing so. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like you inadvertently encourage these bad habits in developing games and cut short the discussions on why these things need to change.
Only intended as a constructive thought. I've got huge respect for everyone on the show.
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Does anyone have on they'd recommend? Don't get me wrong, I like these conversations, but I sort of miss the open-ness, various topics, and big communities behind the forums.
I used to really enjoy 1up's boards, and that's actually where I got my first question read on Garnett's show back in the day, but that community seems to have fallen. There are some cool people still around, but a few too many act like it's some closed social group and act like complete cocks to anyone trying to join in.
Adult Swim is just a bit too mindless for my tastes, and while I hear GAF thrown around all the time, I hear they can be incredibly closed minded and often sink into a mob mentality. Besides, it feels a little pretentious for me to have to apply to post on the boards and have to get a paid-for e-mail address.
The Escapist boards are pretty alright, but I guess I was just wondering if there were any other strong ones out there.
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Just finished Batman: Brave and the Bold and I loved it even though I never did the co-op. If you are a Batman fan, if you are a Green Lantern fan, or just a DC fan, don't miss this title. The game deserves serious props simply for having a playable Hawkman, Blue Beetle, and Green Lantern. And you get to fight Grodd, Gentleman Ghost, and so many other villains I don't want to spoil.
Sure you can't die, but the point is collecting coins much like Kirby.
This game is so chock full of comic love and incredibly good writing that you should do your best to pick it up for about $25.
Check out the voice cast: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1613073/fullcredits#cast
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I am interesting in your take on the Uncharted movie. Do you think it has a chance of being a success? Mark Wahlberg has been cast as Drake, which makes me sceptical, I don't want it to be another Max Payne... Also, more in general, what do you think of video games being adapted into movies in the first place? Instead of making a film based on the video-game's story, I would find it more interesting to maybe continue the story or go on a spin-off instead.
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As I understand it, GT5 was treated like a joke within the gaming media, not because of the content (and as shown with Prologue, was very impressive), but because of the game being practically ready years before, and that the rest of the time was spent either adding more cars, more polish, and the dynamic weather system. Now for the latter, I can understand since it would seem to add an extra element to the core physics of the game. But for the cars itself, I see that as being superfluous as that is something that could be done as DLC packs.
It seemed that the interest wasn't that great, up until the announcement of a set release date.
But now that the game is out, and some of the sales numbers are out, the reviews have come in, and in general seem to be quite positive about the game, but feel that some of the core mechanics while solid, are no longer trailblazing, but otherwise a great fan service.
However venturing into some forums, there seems to be some angry fans fuming over the 'lack of promotion' for GT5 beyond the game reviews. I personally think that a good review serves as good promotion, but apparently they want more. Of particular note is the anger that comes when it gets compared to Forza 3.
G4tv in my opinion have probably done quite a bit of GT5 featurettes doing video comparisons with Forza 3 and allowing the fans to view for themselves how they compare. There seemed to have been paranoid views that claim the videos are deliberately done to discredit GT5. There also seems to be this paranoid notion that continues on that them and some other gaming media are out against GT5, and want them to fail (and then further accusation of XBox 360 bias).
It's one thing showing previews for particular games, but post release promotion makes you lose that sense of journalistic integrity as you are no longer considered objective. Its also one thing to have a personal preference with regards to games and systems, but to promote in the name of the media outlet is absurd.
Thoughts?
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Have at. I'll check both last week's and this for the show.
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I'm not sure if you have talked about it on the show, but it'd be great to hear your opinions on it sometime.
Myself and all my halo buddies were overjoyed to hear Brian's opinion on The Cage, which has been voted as our least favorite map of all time. Sadly, it seems to always be voted upon when it comes up.
Can't wait till next week.
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I drive a Civic :'(
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http://hotpursuit.needforspeed.com/post/need-speed-hot-pursuit-one-million-challenge
I thought it was interesting. Yes it's marketing, and yes, there's a 99% chance we were going to get these cars for free anyway, but I thought this was a pretty cute, intelligent way to leverage DLC.
Instead of just charging $5 or whatever for the new cars, EA is saying 'if you help us make hay and spread our brand through social networks, we'll give you more content.'
They can rationalize that the extra exposure their trailer gets from pushing up their Youtube search results and getting their video pushed on Facebook pages will result in increased game sales (and the trailer does feature a TON of accolades), so they can monetize the extra content without directly charging for it.
Would you like to see more companies taking this approach? Get gamers to spread the word and help game sales and they (as a whole) get more content as a reward?
Just an additional observation -- I have a new set of 18-25 year olds (about 100 or so of them) every semester through my college courses, and I have been *very* surprised how few, relatively, are "gamers" or who play video games much at all. I usually run a unit on games in my pop culture class, and I have had to actually do some demos of games during class as so many students are unfamiliar with games--even farmville! I wonder if there is a period for some, perhaps surprisingly during college, where folks are just too darn busy and they fall out of the hobby...
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I love you even more.
I also find it odd that people would think that because they have a higher gamerscore, they are some how better than their friends.
Now what I would love instead of some arbitrary number, is a built in leaderboards to PSN and Live.
Where I can go and see my entire CoD career of kills, deaths, melee kills, etc. and get a overall number based on how well I've played but instead of it being inside the game, its on the XMB/Dashboard.
While I think any person choosing to be a developer should expect a degree of job insecurity when projects end, and also think it is hard to get too mad at a businessman for acting like, well, someone who wants to make charity and not run a charity for struggling artists. Still, in the wake of events like the Infinity Ward debacle I'd love to hear more talk about what really goes on behind the scenes in the development game.
What do you guys think?
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Also, has anyone played both F1 2010? I know Garnett loved it but the other hosts aren't race simulation game fans so I'm looking for other impressions.
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I must say the first time I navigated the Kinect Hub with my hand was a magical moment; I loved it. Would I use it everyday to boot up every game? No. But once I was playing Your Shape: Fitness Evolved and in the mindset of the controller-free experience, I didn't want to use a controller to navigate the menus. Using my hands and feet to navigate the game was very natural.
I'll be getting Kinect for Christmas. It, Rock Band 3 and Lips will be the games the family will be gathered around on the night of the 25th :)
I'm really glad to be seeing Jeff doing longer-format shows. That "Crazy" karaoke story was the best.
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On gift cards:
Maybe it was the alcohol, but I'm not sure why Garnett is so skeptical about giving gift cards because people may not use them.
Companies are actually screwed if you buy or receive a gift card and it isn't redeemed since they can't report the revenue until it's actually spent which is why many companies were charging "service charges" or similar fees to slowly reduce the value of the card and report that income. (Legislation has been passed to protect consumers from these predatory fees but it's understandable why stores have to figure out a way to have these purchases register.)
Stores typically run big sales after big gift-card holidays to get consumers to take them out of their wallets so they can show increased quarterly earnings which affect their stock prices/profitability and reduce stock as they move into January which is when they try to clear out all their merchandise for the dreaded January inventory season.
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Also little kids will think that it's meant to be played with like a toy even though it's really for adults whose wealth of information on the subject would surely put said little kids immediately to sleep.
And lastly both are kryptonite to most women.
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Thanks for using it and keep up the good work guys!
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With that said, I ended up buying a PS3 from Walmart with Uncharted and Medal of Honor for Christmas (shh, she doesn't know yet lol). My Ipod is now in the shop, so I'll have to figure a way to keep up with the show, but as far as competition in games, I'm not the best or worst, but I do like a challenge. I play the FPS shooters of the world, and this year I've now gotten really into the Street Fighter series.
It's hard to bridge that gap between the game being balanced and someone just being really good at a particular game to me, except for COD MW2. IMO, that was the most unbalanced game I've ever played. I've yet to pick up COD BLOPS due to a recent fire in my house (thankfully my 360's working :)), but when I do, I hope it's not as insane as MW2.
Side note; I really want to pick up those Astro Gaming Headphones lol. I tried the Turtle Beach at Best Buy, and they seemed weak at best. I don't have a surround sound, one day hopefully, but the Astro's seem cool.
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So often when we talk about games, particularly multiplayer, we hone in on the idea of balance, that games should be equally challenging and fair to all players, at all times. This is the kind of thinking that has led to the whole issue of The Arena in Halo, where incredibly competitive players are demanding that Bungie strip most of the sandbox out of Reach to ensure a minimum of variability.
I sometimes find that throwing out competitive value can sometimes increase my enjoyment of a game. I'm a naturally competitive person. I play my favorite shooters (BF and Halo Reach) to win, and I can get obsessive over my K/D and W/L ratios. The thrill of competition is fun...too a point, but there are many nights where after a long stretch of Halo Reach, I need to wind down. So I have a stack of games, both single-player and multiplayer, that don't trigger that competitive instinct as hard.
Burnout Paradise is one of those games. Team Fortress 2 (on Xbox 360) is another. Lately I've been using Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood as that kind of game too. They are all fun, and I always play the game properly, with the intent of winning, but win, lose or draw, I'm in a relaxed, laid back state of mind and at the end of the day, I don't care about my W/L or K/D. It's a different kind of fun.
Anybody have similar experiences?
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I know it is flawed but It is one of my favs that I only play this time of year. In fact, I started a new game a few days ago.
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"In our current state of affairs, especially in the entertainment business, we’re living in a time when we’re making -- in my humble opinion -- the worst movies in history. They’re geared toward the video game-playing generation. And these video games, which I’m on my son about constantly, these games are people killing for fun, and I think traditionally in movies, there’s always been some kind of lesson in the violent movies."
This was probably during promoting his violent movie Faster, featuring Dwayne Johnson going on a violent killing spree fueled by vengeance. Hey, if Billy Bob Thornton is going to take a blind swing at our medium, I might as well take a potshot at his. He needs to go buy his son Half-Life 2, and the movie industry needs to stop quaking in their boots every time Bobby Kotick proclaims that a video game made the biggest entertainment blah blah blah. Hollywood shouldn't be blaming the video game industry for Hollywood making bad movies.
That being said, I'm getting sick of the lowest-common-denominator approach of games, but that's what sells enough to eclipse Hollywood box office openings, unfortunately. We'll have to wait for more potentially cerebral single-player FPS games like Rage and Deus Ex 3.
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That said, I enjoyed a lot of their Xbox properties.
Kameo was awesome. It was beautiful, awesome, and replaced Rare's traditional random-widget collection with switching forms to create huge combos in combat.
Conker was awesome. Granted it was a remake, but it was a well-done remake of an awesome game. It was also, for my money, the best looking game on the original xbox (except for maybe Stranger's Wrath), and they added a really fun class-based multiplayer that unfortunately asked too much of an audience that used to Halo 2.
Perfect Dark Zero was disappointing as far as presentation and polish is concerned, but the multiplayer was fun and INSANELY well balanced given how many weapons were in play (plus all their secondary fire). I probably played PDZ more than any other Xbox 360 game until the original GRAW hit.
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was ridiculous fun for me. I think those expecting another traditional adventure game focused on earning abilities and random widget-collection had a right to be disappointed. But for me, the ability to think creatively and use problem solving to create vehicles to beat challenges was great. Plus, the cartoon physics at work in the vehicle building was AMAZING, it brought back great memories of building outlandish machines with lego pieces.
Finally, Viva Pinata is one of the best new IPs of this generation across any platform. period.
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on the jetman type level on donkey kong, you have to tap repeatedly to launch the barrel but you only have to hold 2 to lift the barrel once its launched. its a weird little mechanic, i died a couple of times until i figured this out.
Maybe you're thinking of Yoshi's Story? Cause that shit's garbage.
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as for the sunshine discussiob i would have to disagree Yes it was very fun and different from other marios but it wasnt at all difficult. I took one weekend to replay it after i had beat it twice and i am only missing 7 stars now and only one of which isnt a blue coin star but i know exactly where iot is(i didnt use a guide)
I also really enjoyed wind waker It was my first zelda game and the first game i beat all on my own. Twilight princess was absoloutly amazing it was the perfect launch title for the wii it had simple controls and fun gamplay i loved how they changed the graphics and they finaly made the bow easy to use at long distances(even without the scope which is so awsome by thr way)
Keep up the great work and steady stream of great shows everyone!
I don't normally enjoy Rick Rolls, but this is one of the funniest things I've ever seen :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmjR_SnNE5E
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