Hands up, down, and around with Kinect for Xbox One
EA Sports Ignite engine trailer was pre-rendered
Hands-on with Xbox One's new controller
Ryse remade into Xbox One exclusive
Editorial: With Xbox One, you are the controller (and the DRM)
Weekend Confirmed Episode 38
by Garnett Lee, Dec 10, 2010 12:00pm PSTTwo hallmarks of the season come together this episode of Weekend Confirmed. Brian got hit full force with the flu this week and is out recouperating (get well soon buddy). But this time of year always brings people together and in that spirit, joining Garnett and Jeff this week are David Ellis and Billy Berghammer. A massive show ensues. All four have been playing Cataclysm and share their different experiences both with the early and high-level content. But this isn't Warcraft Confirmed and there's more Gran Turismo 5 talk and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood to round out Whatcha' Been Playin? Your insights on the future for Modern Warfare 3 lead the Warning, where the topic of whether our expectations have risen too high for games in general. Big time game announcements in advance of the VGAs anchor the news in the Front Page.
Weekend Confirmed Ep. 38 - 12/10/2010
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Listen to Weekend Confirmed Episode 38 (player window will pop-up)
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Download Weekend Confirmed Episode 38
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: 00:29:57
Whatcha' Been Playin and Cannata-ford a New Game: Start: 00:30:54 End: 01:06:03
The Warning: Start: 01:07:05 End: 01:41:47
Music Break featuring "Shake the Heartbreak" YUG: 01:41:47 End: 01:45:07
The Front Page: Start: 01:45:07 End: 02:24:42
NFL 'Tailgate': Start: 02:25:42 End: 02:34:02
Music Break this week features 44th and Filth artist YUG with "Shake the Heartbreak". It's a massive track with a serious beat, fantastic vocals, and a great drop. "Shake the Heartbreak" is available now in both the iTunes Store and from Beatport (please support the artists who generously let us feature their music each week if you like what you hear). Connect with more from YUG at his artist page and from all their artists at the 44th and Filth Facebook page.
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
As a huge fan of AC1, I'm so excited to see AC:B tearing up the sales charts and seeing core gamers and journalists lavishing praise on the title after an admittedly rough start to the franchise. I remember defending AC1 to my fellow gamers saying that yes, it was repetitive, but the world offered so much potential and what was there was worth playing and seeing to the end. Thankfully, enough people picked up the first iteration to allow for the universally praised sequel AC2. Would it have been better if AC1 had been a 5-star game out of the box? Hell, yeah, but it wasn't. Even Bioshock 1 had issues with all of its high scores.
I absolutely loved Mass Effect 1 and again heard all the criticisms about the janky combat and repetitive mission structures, but I saw the potential in the storyline and the game engine and was praying for a second one. Thankfully, they fixed a lot of problems in the once again praised sequel but to be fair, they threw in the "getting the gang back together'" storyline problem. And now we're slobbering over the announcement of ME3.
So what I'm asking is don't we have some responsibility as core gamers to seek out potential in new titles that could grow into fantastic franchises down the road? With as much money as is required to create a new engine, art assets, coding, and everything else, maybe we should go a bit easier on reviewing or dismissing new entries into our hobby.
I'm not saying throw money at horrible titles as if development was some sort of charity we have to sponsor or that capitalism doesn't work, but I am saying that titles like Scribblenauts, Enslaved, Epic Mickey, Saboteur or Just Cause 2 (basically a new iteration) sometimes deserve a champion so they might live on to become incredible franchises.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 5 replies.
I remember as a kid, reading through EGM, and my friends and I would always make note of the games that got silver or bronze awards. 7s and 8s. These weren't the blockbusters or the GOTY candidates, but they were solid, sometimes niche games with interesting ideas and more good qualities than bad.
You never hear about those games anymore. Fans are either hailing it as the second coming (usually the big, AAA, 9+ games) or they're on message boards contributing nothing but curse-filled diatribes about how bad or disappointing this game that scored a 7 is (VERY GOOD by most scales). And publishers are just as bad - if a game doesn't reach 90+, it's a fucking disaster. There's no middle-ground and that's ridiculous.
I don't think people should buy any games they don't want just to support a promising concept, nor should publishers feel obliged to support a game they legitimately see no upside in. But we need to adjust our mentality that anything below a 9 is a disaster.
Enthusiast gamers should also think about the sway we likely have in our social circles as far as games are concerned. I know that, as a hardcore gamer, I'm often asked my opinions on games. People know I love games, they value my opinion, just as I would value the opinion of a movie buff. Now I can either use that sway and tell somebody that loves Disney that Epic Mickey is a worthless piece of crap because of a few problems, or I can say 'it has some camera issues, feels simplistic at times, but it really nails a great vibe and you'll probably have fun with it.' And I have. And they people I recommended it to, loved it.
If 2 million gamers answer a question like that instead of saying 'it sucks', how many more promising games would get a shot and sell more?
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