New game releases of May 20-26
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
Weekend Confirmed Episode 42
by Garnett Lee, Jan 07, 2011 12:00pm PSTEveryone is excited to get back in the studio for this first show of 2011. Though new releases cooled over the holidays, Garnett, Brian, and Jeff have plenty of stories for Whatcha Been Playin? Catch up time includes classics like Uncharted 2 and more recent titles such as Vanquish and Bad Company 2 "Vietnam". Jeff got in some time with a new game too; he has mixed feelings about Lost in Shadow, though. Your responses to how much a review score determines whether a game is worth playing get the conversation started in the Warning. There's even a little homework for next week too on a couple of subjects we'd like to get your thoughts on. And in the news, we've got a look at the video game stories coming out of CES from Microsoft's press conference to handheld gaming PC concept by Razer, indie games nominated for IGF awards, and more.
Weekend Confirmed Ep. 42 - 01/07/2011
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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: 00:28:56
Whatcha' Been Playin? and Cannata-ford: 00:30:00 End: 01:03:52
The Warning: 01:04:40 End: 01:37:52
Featured Music "Baba Yetu" by Christopher Tin: 01:37:52 End: 01:41:22
The Front Page: Start: 01:41:22 End: 02:08:20
Tailgate Playoffs Wild Card Special: Start: 02:09:21 End: 02:19:07
The Featured Music segment presents the Grammy nominated track "Baba Yetu" by Christopher Tin. This theme song for Civilization IV has become something of a hit in the video game community. After the game came out in 2005, Tin re-recorded the song as the first track of his debut album Calling All Dawns, which came out last year. This new recording is recorded by the Soweto Gospel Choir and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Tin went to London's famous Abbey Road Studios to record the orchestra, and then down to Johannesburg, South Africa to record the choir; and, it was mixed at Eargasm Studios. It has won awards in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, International Songwriting Competition, USA Songwriting Competition, and now it's gunning for the biggest award of all... the Grammy.
Billboard picked "Baba Yetu" as one of their nominations to watch. It's up for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists and Tin's Calling All Dawns is up for Best Classical Crossover Album.
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
If you don't know the details, hackers basically figured out the code Sony uses to sign PS3 software as "official," and with it can now trick the PS3 into thinking homebrew apps or even pirated games are official. Theoretically it could reach a point where you won't need custom firmware or a modded console to run this stuff. Sony might not even be able to fix this with a firmware update since updating the keys would invalidate all current PS3 software. The worst possible case scenario would be Dreamcast levels of piracy.
On the flipside, people are already talking about other kinds of homebrew apps for the PS3. All-in-all, the following might eventually become possible:
MKV support
Ability to install any homebrew (signed or not)
Ability to run backups... install manager of our choice.
Ability to run Linux.
Region free blu ray
Emulators (Dreamcast, PS1, N64, and more)
XBMC
Direct rom launcher on XMB
Allow 3rd party USB controllers/drivers (360 controller support?)
Allow 3rd party bluetooth (Wii controller, sends files from other blutooth devices)
Remap button controls
Better and faster web browser
Custom soundtrack support for all games
Easy to navigate YouTube and Hulu apps
Radio support
Homebrew games (imagine the Move and PSEye homebrew games)
NTFS hardrive support
Unlock saves
PDF, txt, comic reader
New features for in game XMB if there is enough RAM (in game FAQ - open txt file)
The PS3 might really do Everything one day.
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How much of a piece of shit do you have to be to release that game?
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Great show, BTW. Happy New Year!
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But since a "Fuck those people" has already been thrown out there: no, fuck you! It was obvious since your preview discussions of Civ V that you guys are actually severely ignorant of both the time at which certain innovations were introduced, and more importantly, what effect they had on the franchise.
Here is your required reading:
Tom Chick's review outlines series flaws that were ignored by every other big site:
http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3181540
Sullla proves that he understands the game better than the people who made it. His article is not an emotional tirade on the game, it is an explanation of the design choices in Civ V and the consequences of those choices. You can just skip down half way to "Five Problem's with Civ V's Design":
http://www.garath.net/Sullla/Civ5/whatwentwrong.html
If you want to have a real discussion you're going to have to catch up to us in terms of understanding the game itself. Telling us to just go back to Civ IV is like conservatives telling liberals to move to Canada. It is such an offensive comment to make in light of the work the Civ community has put into analyzing the game and fixing it on their own (Civ IV was saved when the community made a better AI than than Firaxes could make. Firaxes implemented that mod into an official patch a month later.) "Fuck those people"? Those are the people who will fix Civ.
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Of the hopeful blockbusters, I'm really keen for LA Noire, Portal 2 and Homefront. And I'm intrigued by the new Tombraider (the first time I've been excited by an entry in that franchise), Batman: Arkham City and Project Draco.
What about everyone else?
I remember back in the NES and SNES days reviews were really important to me as a kid and in that period of video game history. Back in those days a game either sat behind a glass window in the store or in my console at home after the expensive purchase. The only information about the game was preened from a printed video game magazine.
But these days it's a whole different world. We have a complete saturation of media and information. Aside from rentals, instantly downloadable demos, developer diaries, game developers forums, the pedigree/back catalogue of the developer and youtube gameplay footage there's the internet community and buzz that surrounds each title from forums to podcasters that paint a more accurate picture of a game that any single 5 paragraph review + score ever could.
I really can't remember the last time I read a review to make a purchase decision. Last year I bought Red Dead Redemption, Halo Reach and Dragon Age Origins. I got these games on release day via a pre-order. A PRE-ORDER! I had made the decision to purchase the game before it was even finished development or released. I never once bothered reading a review of these games before or after I bought them. A few of the other games I bought post release were Fallout New Vegas and Assassin's Creed 2 and although I never read a single review I new exactly what to expect from these games from forums I visit and the podcasts I listen to.
I would rather read the kind of review that doesn't end in a score but rather the writers overall experience with the game. They should talk about the flaws and strengths and the reader can make a decision about the game based on the critique rather than a single uninspiring score.
I think reviews are perhaps on the verge of extinction. They probably won't ever die out completely but their relevance is waning greatly.
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It really has me flummoxed.
I just don't know what it says about gamers that, in this horrible economy, many of us are choosing to buy more games than we can possibly play.
Does anyone else have this issue? What do you think this could mean?
I know part of what has driven me to buy so many games new is a feeling of guilt if I don't support a studio I like by buying their game in the first week or two. But why should I feel guilty?
I have to wonder if part of it comes from developers and publishers blaming consumers when games fail, but in the over-saturated market it just doesn't seem feasible to buy every big new game that comes out.
Still. I am the one in control of my games-based spending, not publishers, developers, or the press. I am going to try to move away from a pure consumer mentality, and spend more time returning to games I already own and love. I am also going to spend more time playing the games I do buy, rather than just blasting through them to get to the next new title.
Help me out guys. I really don't know what to make of all of this!
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The devs don't have a lot of marketing muscle but I guess this says a lot about their fans. We are busy bees in the forums and always promoting the game when we can even if we don't get anything in return.
In many ways this is my "Civilization" game. Its one of those games i pick at from time to time and when I sit down, hours pass like minutes.
all jokes aside, if that game doesn't come out in 2011 I'll be very disappointed.
I'm not a Civ5 hater. Please don't put me in that camp. I think it's an amazing game, and I think the changes from Civ4 are improvements on what was already a very good game. But why did it take so long?! For example, I played Age of Wonders in 1999, and it made excellent use of hex-based maps (vs the square grid in Heroes of Might and Magic). It had good neighbouring hex support mechanics, with no unit stacking (vs the mega stacks in HOMM). I always enjoyed Civ, but at the same time was frustrated by some of it's archaic mechanics. It's great that Civ5 has made these changes, but I kinda feel that they are 10 years late to the party. These mechanics are not new innovations -- just new to Civ.
I would also recommend Age of Wonders as a Cannatafford game. The entire trilogy is available on both Steam and GOG for under $20 I believe.
I just started playing SC2 over Christmas break and I'm really liking it. I'd love to hook up with some Shackers for some Multiplayer. Somehow, I won all 5 of my placement matches in 3v3 and ended up platinum. I'm gonna get slaughtered if I don't find some mates. But maybe thats good. 1v1, 2v2, yeah.....bronze. But, I just started. Look for me, Doubleja.
I've been playing through it lately, as well, so its actually pretty nice to hear that Garnett is stuck in 2010, too.
Garnett's argument that Uncharted 2 is a flawed gem, so Enslaved should get some slack flipped my lid, ever so slightly. U2 certainly has its issues (combat can still be monotonous, and platforming restrictive) but its also a sequel. They made huge improvements in hiding their gameplay contrivances the second time around.
Enslaved didn't, ever. My face is bombarded with gameplay contrivances in that game. Trap-door-ladders might be a weird thing to constantly find in any architecture, but they're no worse than the constant ledges that Trip needs to be boosted up, the constant gaps she needs to be thrown over, every area you stumble in to that needs to be scanned before proceeding. The glowy hand-plants are, ironically, the least irritating of the contrivances. But, lets not get away from that scanning because of what is always beeing scanned: robits.
The robots are the worst. Why are they all sleeping in these dilapidated shells of buildings? Why are there locked security doors in these buildings that lack doors entirely, otherwise? Why are there turrets set up to protect the locked security doors in these empty buildings with almost no surviving floors? They're there because they're there; because you need something to sneak passed or to fight, supposedly. For a game with such great dialog and acting, its a shame that the circumstances you're caught in almost always feel about as plausible as Donkey Kong.
TL;DR: Robots sleeping in heaps within urban detritus are a far worse gameplay contrivance than trap door ladders.
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I just remembered the whole bizarre creations problem and thought, why not create a geometry wars: kinect/move
Also, over than this, what other older franchises would benifit from the kinect/move
Love the show
Xbox live gamertag : louiboy001
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I think an interesting question to ask is how a game starting out as P2P affects its success when it goes F2P. P2P games have an aura of higher quality than F2P games, so when they make the transition it helps them stand out from the crowd - these are games that got coverage on major gaming sites, after all, unlike most F2P MMOs. Moreover, you cannot disregard the pressures monetization exerts on the design of F2P games; P2P games have the advantage of perceived fairness in gameplay design, which they (generally) cultivate when going F2P.
On the subject of the necessity of matchmaking:
I agree with Brian that on a console (and increasingly on PC) matchmaking is necessary. Matchmaking is the lowest common denominator - the newbie with no friends who wants to play the game and enjoy it, not feel like he's entered a hostile environment where he has no chance of success. It is in the interest of the developers that as many new players join and enjoy the game; a lobby system is too random a way to guarantee a good experience. In the very stat driven game design of today, where developers collect all kinds of statistics, it only makes sense to extend that into improving the chances of new players having fun.
Of course, the problem with matchmaking is that its ultimate purpose is to bring you to a 50/50 win/loss ratio, which people are rarely happy with. At that point, it is the quality of the community, the sort of the people that you meet ingame, which will determine how much you enjoy the game. Unfortunately, matchmaking tends to attract less understanding people than servers; the ability to blame the matchmaking algorithm actively encourages people to blame others for their loss.
So you're screwed either way; the choice is between an insular server-based community or a matchmaking community full of jerks. Matchmaking will win in the end, but it'll only happen when the internet finds a way to stop people for being jerks.
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Okay, so lets compare 8.5/10 games with 9.5/10 games. Does that invalidate the criteria? Just because a number is involved, doesn't mean it's a pure metacritic-driven decsion, or that people aren't capable of make holistic choices without bloody spreadsheets.
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I actually didn't mean it in terms of multiplayer, I just meant purely in terms of game design.
I totally realize that the games are very different, I just wanted to hear why you preferred the SC2 way to the DOW way.
As Jeff says, we can totally live in harmony. :)
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I just needed to jump in and comment quickly on your discussion of my comments from last week.
Garnett read half my point out loud, but stopped before getting to the real point of my argument.
What I said was:
"To blow through the entire game in 8 hours is not only a disservice to the game makers, but it often doesn't give the player enough time to really experience everything a game has to offer. "
My point was that my experiences with a great game get better and better the more I play it.
Also, I think Jeff's comparison to reading the same book or watching the same movie again is a bad comparison, because a book or movie will unfold exaclty the same way each time you expirience them. This is not at all true with a great game.
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I am really tired of the continued bashing of the second hand market. This is the only industry I'm aware of with such a high-level of hand wringing when it comes to second-hand sales. I've been playing video games for pretty close to 20 years, and I have been a frequent participant in the second-hand market. As a kid and even now I have a limited amount of disposable income to spend on entertainment. I am very sorry that developers aren't rolling in cash like their Hollywood counterparts, but I just cannot justify to myself buying your game new (at $60), playing it for 2 months, then PUTTING IT ON A SHELF, and waiting for the next new-hotness to start the cycle all over again. I'm really sorry, I truly am, but as I learned from being on the short end of many business transactions, dems da breaks. Lower your new price.
This is the part that often gets skipped in the debate: surprisingly, I never hear it brought up on any of the podcasts: The Used-Game market allows sites like Shacknews, 1up, and Gamespot to thrive. Being a full price gamer is obscenely expensive. I just bought my PS3 (my only console) in April, if I were to have paid full price (with no trade-ins) for the PS3 system and titles I have enjoyed or are enjoying it would be just under $1500. Sorry, I do love games with an intensity but for people like me that is a lot of money I don't have. Truth be told, without the used game market, I'd still be making do with CoD and SFIV, and I can tell you that if I was paying full price for games for the duration and not trading them in, it would probably be 3 annual purchases of AAA games. But I do enjoy being able to participate in the gaming community and being able to have shared experiences with you guys on Shacknews and the rest of the community. Gamestop and their ilk have lowered the barrier to becoming a well-rounded, well-versed gamer and expanded the size and diversity of the community.
Just this past holiday weekend, I was able to go to Gamestop and trade six PS3 titles (mostly fighting games, sports games, and GoW3) along with my PSP (which has been gathering dust since I bought my IpodTouch) and pick up Red Dead Redemption, Metal Gear 4, Darksiders, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, and Ratchet and Clank without shelling out a dime. I love hearing you guys' thoughts on the direction of gaming and the best executed ideas on the market, but I enjoy it that much more (exponentially more!) when I've played it myself and I'm going to do whatever I can (legally of course :) to stretch my dollar and maximize my experience, and I'm tired of being villified for it.
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1. I need to find a job and im told by people that first impressions are everything and beard equals no go with alot of people hiring.
2. im not sure if I liked how I looked. Although after hearing Jeff say that there is a "beard hump" I think I shoudl have stuck with it a bit longer.
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Also, if you want a hilarious version with lyrics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL6wlTDPiPU
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I myself have been going with the thin jawline (aka Chinstrap, aka Rap Industry Standard) for some time now and it's a nice middle ground. Only need to shave twice a week and it rarely get's uncomfortable.
Last night I finally got around to watching the King's Speech. Amazing movie.
It got me thinking...
The King's Speech is a full, satisfying story that keeps your gripped from beginning to end, and it does it without firing a shot. There are no action sequences, no shoot-outs, no car chases, and no monsters.
Can there ever be a videogame, where from beginning to end, all you do is talk to people. Where the challenge doesn't come from aiming a gun, or taking out enemies, but actually trying to figure out various character's personality, motivations, biases, weaknesses and 'win' conversations to get the information you need, or get somebody to do something you want?
Mass Effect, while still relatively rudimentary, does a great job of making conversing an ACTIVE pursuit instead of a passive one. Trying to figure characters out, anticipate how they'll respond to different conversational tactics, made conversations as fun for me as the combat. I talked to everybody I could, just for the 'game' of navigating those conversations.
I think more developers and publishers need to look at how to make these kind of interactions active, engaging and powerful.
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