Weekend Confirmed Episode 37
by Garnett Lee, Dec 03, 2010 12:00pm PSTFix yourself one last leftover turkey and stuffing sandwich and get ready for a great show. Epic Mickey and Gran Turismo 5 both arrived and headline this week's Whatcha' Been Playin? In the Warning Jeff's return to World of Warcraft gets things started and then it's on to your thoughts on having fun versus being competitive. Sales for Move and Kinect, a new squad-based shooter from Yakuza's creator, and the rest of the week's videogame news bring the show home in the Front Page.
Weekend Confirmed Ep. 37 - 12/03/2010
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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: 00:30:08
Whatcha' Been Playin and Cannata-ford a New Game: Start: 00:31:12 End: 01:02:04
The Warning: Start: 01:02:56 End: 01:34:40
Music Break featuring "Let Me Put You at Ease": 01:34:40 End: 01:37:50
The Front Page: Start: 01:37:50 End: 02:08:37
NFL 'Tailgate': Start: 02:09:39 End: 02:18:23
Music Break this week features "Let Me Put You at Ease" by Jonathan Carter aka graphicnapkin. For more, check out his official site and follow him on Twitter.
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.
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









Comments
I'm a lifelong gamer girl (since NES days), and my circle of friends has always included other gamer chicks. For my part, I can't imagine dating a man who DIDN'T play video games, and it blows me away every time I hear about women of any age who put down guys who enjoy the hobby.
While I understand that there really are women (and men) who see the hobby as juvenile, I'm certain that none of my friends feel that way, even those who don't play many games themselves. It shocks me to think that folks active in the game industry wouldn't know a lot of folks of both genders who enjoy video games.
Is there really still such a lack of women in the hobby that even folks in the industry know more anti-gamers than gamer chicks?
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Garnett I really appreciated your review of GT5. Will you continue to play it for a long time?
One last gripe... I resent having to sign up to post a comment. Talk about biased feedback. How can you expect to get honest opinions if there is a barrier to do so?
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But, am I out of line by saying that the game, after 5+ years of development, still doesn't feel complete?
I've grown up with racing games. The Gran Turismo series has always been my favorite. Until the Forza series, nothing came close to its quality and performance. GT5 however, disappoints me in both the interface design, as well as the overall selection of races. As I am battling through the menus, deciding which race to do next, I feel like they could still put in another year, or 3, into this game. Overall, GT5 does not have a vast selection of races to participate in, and you will ultimately find yourself racing the same series multiple times when you need the credits. Have you ever looked at full race grid in Forza 3? Its user friendly, and enormous.
Ever 5 minutes I play GT5, I find myself starting my sentences with, "well that sucks, 'cause in Forza 3..." and at this point I am curious, even though the driving engine itself of GT5 is stellar, what the hell happened to the rest of the game? Is it really just the difference between a Western and Japanese racing sim, or did the OCD Japanese guy in charge of the game drop the ball?
Weekend confirmed rocks! Why aren't you guys on the ballot for best video game podcast on podcastawards.com? You would have had my vote. Anyways, thanks for the entertainment on my Friday afternoons in the office. My job sucks. You guys make it a lot better.
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I shouldn't comment on this game specifically because I haven't played it, but it was refreshing to hear your discussion on it. I read some reviews elsewhere, and other video game reviewers seemed to love the game despite its flaws.
This brings me to a point: what is that secret sauce that a game has (or doesn't have) that makes you guys look past its flaws?
If I were answering this question, the off-the-top-of-my-head response is "it's the gameplay, stupid". However, Earlier in the year, I played through Mafia II despite the fact that its gameplay was poor compared to other games. I was hooked by the story, environments, characters, etc - so I guess it isn't all about the gameplay - at least not for me. (Though the lack of checkpoints almost got me to quit Mafia II before I was done, but that's another topic....)
Anyway, this is a great podcast, and this seems to be a very good community to be a part of. Keep it up!
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We got to thinking about how great it would be to get something in return for those points, but also how hard it would be to balance out the incentives for such a system. Regardless, I think its something they should look into (but probably wont anytime soon). The ability to perhaps unlock avatar clothing (or special avatar filters for steam) could be a nice return for the time invested on reaching that next even number of gamerscore.
I think games would be great if they adopted a strategy similar to that of what SCVNGR is trying to do with checkins, once you have earned enough points, you can create your own custom tasks. Wouldn't it be great to have the ability to make your own small, but unique achievements for a game you love and have mastered?
Obviously that would be open to lots of abuse, but I know they could all be addressed. Perhaps have a second score, or limit the reward amounts to 5g, etc.
The bottom line is that there is so much room available for creative thinking in this small area that could add a lot of engagement and fulfillment to us gamers.
Thanks for the great show guys and congrats on your itunes listing.
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Really hope you read this. Thanks.
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War Face: The Face of War
War Face: Face Eater
War Face: *facepalm*
War Face: Face Lift
War Face: War Ears, War Eyes, War Nose and War Throat!
War Face for Playstation Move: This Time It's Peripheral!
War Face for Kinect: You Must Have 6 to 8 Feet For This Face!
War Face for Wii: No Really...We're Not Shitting You. It's Really On The Wii.
War Face: You've Got Something On Your Face...No...Yeah...Uh...A Little To The Left, Riiiiight....Right There!, Yeah Ya Got It!
Review of War Face - Get a brown bag for this one
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As for myself, I traded in my dusty PSPGO at Gamestop during one of their trade-in offers and scored a Kinect for only $15. At that price, even a hardcore gamer like myself would be hard pressed to say no, and my wife enjoys Dance Central, so it's a win-win. Naturally, I also have Move, which I purchased mostly through department store loyalty points. As both devices are aimed at casuals, they are sold just about everywhere, so there are plenty of ways to save money on them for the cost-savvy. It's no wonder there have been such strong sell-throughs of these products.
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Warface: Warf Speed
WarFace: Warning Ahead
The similarities are obvious and incredibly reasonable when you consider that talent from FASA worked on Reach. The armor abilities in Reach are basically just reworked magic and tech abilities from Shadowrun, and the aiming system in Reach uses a refined version of the bloom system from Shadowrun.
So Halo Reach really is something of a spiritual successor to Shadowrun, as well as an evolution of the Halo franchise with it's defining shoot/melee/grenade core, regenerating health, and infanty/vehicle interplay.
Anyway, I really felt an urge to go back and play Shadowrun, just to appreciate where the systems in Halo Reach were drawn from. Shadowrun was a really under-appreciated game, and I know there's a bunch of legal and brand reasons for not bringing it up, but I wish there was some way to spread the word to more people that 'if you like Halo Reach' you should check out Shadowrun.' Because I bet it would blow their minds that this overlooked game influenced one of the biggest franchises in gaming.
Can you think of any games you loved, only to realize there were older games you missed that heavily inspired them?
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I thought I would post it here in case anyone wanted to check it out.
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I was pretty surprised at the accounts giving by the high school and university teachers you read. As a first year University student in Ontario, I am constantly amazed on just how well integrated gaming is in the culture of students. Sure there are people (especially females) that have never played a game in their lives more than a drunken round of Mario Kart 64, but they at least understand what games are and usually have a brother or boyfriend who plays them on a regular basis.
Also on the topic of not having time to play games in college or university, I would agree and say that I actually need to make dedicated time to play games and catch up on news, as well as listening to pod-casts, or I would be lost in shuffle of studying and socializing. The reason I do this is because games are as important to me as those other aspects and I would feel at a loss if I let one side dominant in the balance of my life.
Garnett I really appreciated your review of GT5. Will you continue to play it for a long time?
One last gripe... I resent having to sign up to post a comment. Talk about biased feedback. How can you expect to get honest opinions if there is a barrier to do so?
i know i could have settled for bronze, but i adore driving games and i'm less rubbish at these than most other games so i applied myself to the task.
Warface: Flying Ace
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I figured out that I had ended up following three general rules:
1) Get sleep wherever and whenever you can get it. Mot of my sleep during college probably came from power naps on couches on the third floor above the food court between classes. This is factoring in me having to drive to campus every morning at 7am.
2) Stay the hell away from RPGs. Any single game that will take more than 30 hours out of your life is to be avoided. Oh I actually did finish Persona 3 while in college, it just took me four months. That goes double for MMOs.
3) Rent more, buy less. I also had to raise my standards for what I buy and rent everything else. If a game didn't register at at least a 9/10 (or A in 1up terms) on my personal scale, I didn't go for it.
RSS feeds were how I kept up with news.
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I'm not that broken up about having no cockpit in the standard cars; it would've been nice, but I don't mind concentrating on the sounds and physics, and using the HUD gauges. I really love the detail of the gauges in the premium cars; they're very readable.
I do like seeing the large variety of cars with the high car count; I managed to find a Toyota Caldina GT-Four. It's great to see all the JDM and European market cars that I wouldn't expect to see covered in a Need for Speed or Forza game.
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Or maybe I'm just hoping one of you will finally review minecraft.
I don't understand why it's relevant that the Move numbers included bundles, when the Kinect numbers also includes bundles? Further more, and this is just anecdotal, but the retail outlet I work at the sells only video games and shall not be named, received 8 stand alone 4GB 360s, compared to a massive 27 Kinect bundled units.
Also, I don't understand the importance of "shipped" being a bad thing? Just for clarifications sake, it is very difficult for Sony to accurately gauge the sales of Move units across multiple sku's when there is no serial number being recorded at retail outlets, where as Kinect is scanned for the SN at every POS, and then that data can be filtered back to MS for warranty purposes (thus, giving them direct sales numbers). Brian was a bit smug as though Move is an utter failure, and I found it a bit disingenuous to say the least.
Also, why the off the cuff bullshit about "mini-games" on move, yet again, Brian? Do you not play Geometry Wars? Rather, have no never played any iPhone game, XBLA game, PSN game, etc? They are ALL mini-games, at least for the most part. No story, no career, no blockbuster graphics. The depth comes only from the gameplay mechanics. I think there is an absolutely massive difference between generalizing something you refuse to even play outright, (minigames) and confusing that with shallow games (Carnival Games title four hundred). Even then, I don't really know why the type of games matter, when Move still overs far more variety and quantity of software at present than Kinect.
In closing: Why would you even bring up Head Tracking in the GT5 segment if you don't even own Move or a PS Eye? It just seemed like more ammo you found somewhere to levee against GT5 and your new found love for Forza.
Now that I'm done being a total ass...
How about those damn Steelers! Wish our Offense could have pulled it together a little sooner, but none the less it was a really brutal game.
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Jeff is right, about how most guys play games when their girls go to bed. My girlfriend and I live in a very small one room apartment, where the bed is in the same room as my games and I rarely get to play even when she is asleep, she doesn’t really mind, but I think the clicking of the analog sticks alone keeps her up. Though I did experience something remarkable after Halo Reach came out, my girlfriend would actually request that I play it so that she could go to sleep. She said it was the most “droning, mindless, repetitive sound” she has ever heard. I don’t get why it puts her to sleep so fast, I can be engaged in a huge firefight with the covenant and she will be dead asleep. She is generally accepting about my gaming hobby but doesn’t like for me to do it when she is around, which is hard when we live in such a small place. She thinks it is “stupid” but not for the same reasons as most girls probably. She’s very anti consumerism and only things that are scholarly really draw her attention. She thinks that videogames are too much of an escape for today’s “man babies” and that it’s stupid for most people who live paycheck to paycheck to waste such a massive amount of money on escapism. She would rather me read a book than play games, basically, though we do play a few games together, like Mario Kart, and Beatles Rockband. My question to you guys is, have you dated women who were less than excepting of your gaming hobby? Do you think those types of relationships usually work out?
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ANYWAY, that being said. Garnett, although I thoroughly agree with you that developers should push what can be done in games, especially when it comes to player choice/consequence...I think we as the game players often forget what is required to do that. All game devs are under the same restrictions: time & budget.
This article got me thinking: http://gameinternals.com/post/2072558330/understanding-pac-man-ghost-behavior
I saw how incredibly complex programming for a "simple" game of pacman is. Some of the requests that we make as gamers would just fall short of requiring game manufacturers to be capable of creating true AI. Having a game where your one decision at any given moment would change every conversation, quest, geographical location...is an undertaking beyond what can be accomplished by a game developer. We have to remember that a writer for that type of game would never finish the story, because it would have near infinite endings...let alone the guy(s) who have to code that stuff.
Although we should keep pushing and expect more out of our developers, we have to remember the ultimate cliche saying of "Rome wasn't built in a day". We complained about the delays of GT5, but could you imagine the length of time that it would have taken for Fable 3 to come out if everything and anything could be changed on the fly by the player? Peter Molyneux tends to dream like that (aloud) and I think he "gets" what we want, but if he can't produce it, and even abandoned his Milo project, it says something to how difficult a task it is...ESPECIALLY when budget/marketing/time restrictions are involved. Game producers only know that COD:BO sold a TON withOUT all of that "player choice" so do we ever think that a producer will care enough to sink millions of dollars and several years (maybe even a decade) into an "ultimate choose your own adventure" game that still may or may not sell?
All things having been said, my point is this... when we as gamers talk about what would make a game better, we should also keep in mind the business/logistics side of things and not expect a developer to be able to deliver a mind-blowing, unbelievable game with infinite choices...in a little over a year and under budget.
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World of Warface: Dwarf Fortress
The first expansion for World of Warface...
...And then Brian stole my idea, despite the show being recorded a day earlier.
imba time pocket.
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I apologize in advance for this shameless self promotion, but I just got my own website up and running:
www.cruellegaceyproductions.com
It's a hub for all my halo related videos, montages, screenshots, and forge creations.... it's like disney land for Halo nerds :)
Check it out and let me know what you think!
Despite Garnett's trolls - I know exactly what Jeff talks about when he says WoW evokes nostalgia. It's an amazing game.
"You can do anything with any class now [in WoW]" - I guess it wouldn't be Weekend Confirmed without one of Ryan's ignorant-ass comments.
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every show since the game came out you have mentioned it but not really talked about it you really should it's a very fun game with very addicting multiplayer
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I'm from Vancouver, Canada and I opted to go to University in Illinois. Great psych program, good scholarship and it was far away from my parents. Anyway, contrary to what you may have heard Canada and the US really aren't that different, so there wasn't a lot of culture shock. That said, I didn't know anybody and didn't have the same popular culture cues to start up conversations or what not (like American politics, or Illinois sports teams...although I'm now something of a Blackhawks fan).
Hitting up parties was good for meeting people (of both sexes), but didn't really result in any meaningful friendships. Makes sense, everybody is drunk and looking for tail. I did make solid friendships with a few of the people on my dorm floor though, and the reason for that: videogames. I brought all my consoles to college and bought a TV. I wasn't always playing, cause I had work and other shit to do, but I can do work with other people in the room, so people would always come in and ask if they could try out various games.
A few months in I realized that this interest in videogames probably wasn't an isolated issue. So I started an on-campus club for videogames. We would basically take over one of the building every two weeks, hook up a bunch of games to the overhead projectors and the LAN set-ups, and have multiplayer sessions with tons of big games. Halo, Madden (I tried to get NHL in, but no go), Mario Kart, Smash Brothers, Twisted Metal, SOCOM, we had up to 10 full games going at any given time.
It grew to be the biggest club on campus by membership. My advisor, who helped me get the club off the ground brought professors to some of the events whenever he overheard them making disparging remarks about videogames, and pointed out the fact that of all the clubs on campus, the gaming club attracted the widest variety of social niches. Athletes, Engineers, Art students, Science majors, Caucasions, African Americans, International students. No other club had as much diversity. The only notable omission was women, and we tried to get them interested, but its hard to get any women into a building packed to the rafters with guys yelling 'Oh, I just raped you BITCH!' and laughing.
Anyway, there's an uplifting story about how students and professors a like can come together through a shared interest in videogames. :)
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Anyway, what are your thoughts on all of the Social aspects of GT5? I hadn't heard anyone really discuss it at all in last weeks show (I think?) and I feel it's a huge part of the experience that has been considerably overlooked. I mean, in a nutshell it's Facebook for GT5, more or less (very barebones though). Photosharing, walls, you can see folks progress (even their event logs), etc. I think it's taking the basic idea of comparing trophies / achievements and turning it up to 11. I'd really like to hear your thoughts on this.
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Please continue to keep us updated on the game because I enjoy hearing how regions, classes, quests, and anything else has changed.
I'd really like to see a game that offers a more "in depth" tuning for difficulty. Let me adjust the AI level, the damage I dish out and the health I have, or enemy accuracy, etc. I just think that sliders in this case would really let me experience the game how I think it would best be experiences, instead of relying on a word to give me an idea of what I may or may not be up against. Thoughts?
The Water Temple is still burned into the brain though...
GT5 has four R35 GT-Rs: the normal one, the "SpecV" version, the 2005 prototype, and the "black mask" version.
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