Weekend Confirmed Episode 62

Man, the L.A. Noire talk was not exactly wrong, but it sure was more negative and critical than it was positive. It is funny, because it seems to me like games that try something new get put under a special microscope while titles like the CoD games and the yearly Maddens get passes on all the little imperfections. Part of me wants us to put a critical an EVERY aspect of every game to push the industry forward, but part of me wants us to prostelyze games like L.A. Noire, Heavy Rain, and even though it is less original, Enslaved.

I'm glad for whoever it was that came back and said that they did recommend the game, but I am also worried the conversation was so negative that it may have pushed some away.

Can someone explain why Duke has some kind of massive legacy?

People seem to be peaking over Duke like he is some foundational pillar of video gaming, but I don't know why. Now, I'm an old dude and I've been playing games since they came on cassette tapes so I know all about Duke. He had one main game. Ok, so he had a couple of DOS based platforming games but he made his mark on gaming in 1996 with Duke Nukem 3D. Now, this was a great game, I had loads of fun with it and it had a really fun style and slapstick humor to it. It also made a splash because of the controversy around it in a similar way to games at the time like Mortal Kombat and so forth (and not to sound like Grampa Simpson), which was the style at the time. Duke Nukem 3D didn't really revolutionize anything, didn't invent any new insane gaming mechanics, at the end of the day it was just a really fun, awesome game.

Yet Duke seems to command far more respect and legacy over a single game than makes sense.

The closest to an explanation I can find is this. There's been plenty of one hit wonders in gaming, franchises that make a massive splash and get everyone's attention. After the storm clears they either make a tonne of crappy sequels that ruin the franchise or they continue to produce quality titles and become a foundation of gaming. But this didn't happen with Duke. He had one great title ... and then nothing. Over a decade later there's been no sequel. And that's a real rarity in gaming which relies on exploiting franchises for the money they produce.

So I'll put forth the following equation:

Hit game + sequels = proportionate legacy based on quality of sequels

or in Duke's case ...

Hit game + 15 years absence + circus like development process = inflated legacy beyond what the original game could possibly produce.

Honestly, the amount of respect and legacy and stock people put into Duke isn't anywhere in proportion to his contribution to gaming.

I can't help wondering what would happen if other games had been put in Duke's shoes. Let's take a really popular, crass game of the mid 90s, let's say Mortal Kombat. Everyone fell in love with it, it upset parents and it had a bold style to it. Then imagine that Midway went into development for the sequel, crap happens, delays occur, companies change hands and 15 years pass and the spectacle of a development process that never seemed to end leaves everybody dumbfounded. And now imagine it's 2011 and finally Mortal Kombat 2 is about to come out, that crazy violent game from the 1990s that everyone remembers and cherishes. Would MK have the same legendary, almost mythical air about it that Duke has?

It's interesting to think about.

Gotta disagree with you Christian about the controls for LA Noire. Moving the sprint button from mashing X to pulling R2 (like Assassin's Creed) made the controls 100% better.

E3 was proclaimed dead a few years ago, yet the hype around this year's show seems almost bigger then ever. What do you think has led to the reemergence of the show?

Highly recommend everyone reads Patrick Klepek's piece over on Giant Bomb "You should try failing more often, Detective Phelps." link below:

http://www.giantbomb.com/news/you-should-try-failing-more-often-detective-phelps/3280/

A great discussion piece because playing (and failing quite often) LA Noire was a great experience for me but only because I knew that I was going to be able to go back after and "do it right". I wanted to see how the case played out when I got every question right and had I not known that I was going to be able to go back, i probably would have had a miserable experience.

Saying that, i liked that there were very few fail-states in the game that caused you to replay a section. i never would have wanted a "interview failed" screen and have had to replay it. I also love the fact that I can no go back and play certain cases again, ones I did poorly on, so i can see the outcome if they went well.

Christian referred to RTS players as a "niche". Sure, RTS's don't sell like FPS's or Angry Birds, but as of February, Starcraft 2 had sold 4.5 million legal copies. Is that really a niche?

Then again, next to Angry Birds sales I guess everything is a niche.

A huge congrats goes out to Brooklyn, who--according to her Lifecycle page--has hit her goal of $3000!

Don't know if it's too late to bring up this for the show, but you all probably know now that EGM has finally launched on the iPad (along with a lot of other magazines recently it seems). You also now have Atomix on the scene.

After checking it out, I think I'm done with print. I'm sorry, but it's over. Do you guys think all or most game magazines should make this transition?

With the next update EGM even says that we'll be getting digital versions identical to the print editions. We're still getting print's main advantage over online - the periodic edition format that gives editors time for stronger stories. Now it's just on a portable electronic device that also allows for integration with other media.

I know I would be more likely to subscribe to the likes of GamePro, the new 1up Presents, Killscreen, and others if they made the same transition.

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Yours Reunion Confirmed!

Garnett
Skip
Lukems
MANGOD
Johnny England

Garnett, please consider using the old intro music. ;-)

I LOVE YOU MAN. I was thinking the same thing, Garnett. Skip expressed that pure joy of gaming that gets buried sometimes and is the core of what has made your shows and work over the years worth following.

In response to Xav's Finishing Move, this E3 I can't wait to see more of:
- Rayman: Origins
- Class3
- Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

With Duke I'm excited because it looks like it could be a throwback. I'm of the belief that game design doesn't evolve along one narrow path with older mostly discarded ideas always being invalid.

Part of SC2's appeal is that its largely an oldschool RTS. I'm not sure if Duke is the best game to go to for the fast paced oldschool FPS game itch...but not too many of those get made anymore (personally I'd prefer Quakeworld 2 or DOOM2 meets Quakeworld meets something crazy...but that's me). The idea of a fun DM where I can run around and learn new weapons that aren't all variations on the same theme (machinegun, pistol, rocketlauncher with limited ammo, sniper rifle, shotgun) and overwhelmingly hitscan peaks my interest.

I also think its funny that CoD gets brought up as the graphical standard in a "DNF looks dated" discussion, when CoD itself is somewhat dated.

Christian, I admit that your first few appearances had me thinking "who the heck is this random guy and why do they keep inviting him?" More and more with every appearance though, you're providing great insight and opinions which I find genuinely interesting. I'm a total convert.

Garnett's finishing move.

I feel ya. I went into EB Games today and asked them for a copy of Darksiders. They didn't have it in but they're gonna get it and I'm gonna play it.

Garnett Lee is a SEXY B****! I was just watching GTtv on spike not too long ago and realized that I hadn't seen Garnett's actual physical appearance in a while; and I must admit, I was taken aback. Now, at the risk of sounding full of it, I am indeed a guy, and a straight one at that. GASP! Really though, no ish, Garnett Lee, you are a handsome dude! To take this complement a little further, the only other guy I've ever seen in this way was, and is, Daniel Craig. On another note, you've got a good Bond villain look, so maybe that has something to do with it.

Ah well! Odd, slightly homo-erotic comments aside, Weekend Confirmed started great, is great, and will no doubt continue to be great!

I don't post here much and I kinda feel left out, lol

Spicer, that was great dude, Eat it Asheron's Call. That whole segment in news was some of the funniest stuff that I have ever listened to.

Great job on the podcast this week.

We need more of the "Brit" on. John Davidson FTW!!!

"Fifty bucks?"

"That just happened five minutes ago!"

It's official: Garnett is the guy from Momento.

I think one of the biggest "holy shit" moments in gaming for me was the first time I played DOOM. It was the shareware version...before that I was a big SNES guy and not much of a PC gamer (though I dabbled)...and I couldn't get the thing to run...so I tried this "bare booting" thing and viola I got DOOM running.

It was late at night and I had to get up the next morning for church, so I couldn't play for long...but I couldn't pull myself away. It didn't have sound (I eventually got PC speaker blips and beeps going) and it still blew me away. This was something I bought on a whim at walmart for next to nothing and it just shocked the hell out of me.

The next morning I got up early to play it more...before my parents and I thought before my brother...but he got up early too...and he was enthralled as well. So we ended up both playing it until we had to get ready and we were just blown away by this whole world that you could run around in from a first person perspective and how smoothly it ran and how looking around and moving was so fluid.

DOOM became like a religion for me...summer vacation came shortly after we got the shareware game...and I played it over and over again...coming back from break in my first year of high school I had to tell everyone about this amazing game and some people knew about it and some people needed to hear the good news of DOOM! I was insane...this game completely blew me away...I had to get the registered version to play more DOOM...and then DOOM2 came out not too long after. I can honestly say that I likely wouldn't have gone down the career path I did (programming) if DOOM didn't spark that interest in me for computers.

This isn't even mentioning the first time I played deathmatch over the LAN in the school computer lab...playing with other people in that game...each person on their own screen...it was gaming nirvana...it was what gaming was supposed to be...it was the fucking future.

Have to say, as much as this seems a slight against Jeff, I really do think that this week's show was one of the strongest in a long time. In none of the sections did I feel it devolved into a one-on-one conversation (as tends to happen between Garnett and Jeff) and the personalities bounced well off each other. It's always great to hear Spicer and Andrew, and I think that Xav has an almost Luke-like ability to be contrarian without being aggravating. I'm pleased that Xav will be a more prominent voice on the show going forward, and my only real idea of advice would be: come next week's show, if you can keep it a full-flowing discussion between at least three of the hosts, then things should be fantastic :)

just on the topic of time (or rather lack of it) - i wish that more publishers/first party studios recognise that they can release their titles outside of the holiday window.

holiday season is crammed full enough as it is, i think the titles which moved to q1 got more exposure as they got more coverage once everybody had bought 62 copies of call of duty each (it seemed like they did anyway).

having said all that, i don't even have time to play la noir now (because dirt 3 has it's claws sunk into me in the spare hour i can find every couple of days to play games), so i gave my copy to my uncle who's actually might have the time to give la noir the time it deserves...beats sitting there on my pile of shame.

on the show itself, i was touched (not in a weird way) up when garnett announced his love for andrew. i've listen to them for the best part of five years and it was just so sweet to hear that.

Not sure what happened the character crossover / mashup segment, but i thought I'd pitch one. Since I'm playing and LOVING L.A. Noire (which I pronounce La noire all french-like cause I'm classy like that) what about Cole Phelps in Alan Wake? Cooperative mystery solving gameplay? TRUTH! There is no DOUBT it'd be a great game.

On the topic of how mature/great LA Noire is, I thought I'd just bring up Shadow of Destiny---an early PS2 game that was broadly overlooked, but did some incredible things from a perspective of combining story and gameplay.

The game takes place in one town, completely rendered in a sandbox fashion, and the campaign only lasts a few hours. What defines the gameplay though is how over those few hours the story can radically shift depending on the player's actions.

You play as a guy who, after he dies, is given the opportunity to time travel and prevent his death. You end up traveling over a span of 100 years within the same few square miles of the game's setting.

The game mechanics are limited to finding clues, taking them to the right place, but you get the gratification of choosing how events play out with 8 endings that are all fully created---not simply like this character is dead vs this character is alive..

Anyway, it really is an amazing little game, and has a lot of the things people talk about hoping for in game story telling.

It seems like maybe the NGP's official title might be called 'Vita'. At first, I didn't really like it, but like with the Wii, it grew on me. Playstation Vita sounds fresh and it let's people know that it is, in fact, something new and different. Unlike the 3DS, which seems to confuse a lot of people; they don't realize that it's something new. Playstation Vita is attention grabbing, I think.

So, what does everyone think about the name? (which might not even be real)

Also, the marketing line for Vita would be, of course, ' Viva La Vita'. Which I think would be really cool.

There are other reasons for seeking physical copies of games; see 11:30 of ShackCast Season 2 Episode 1, where Aaron Linde tells his story of buying 50 copies of Super Tennis for the SNES: http://www.shacknews.com/article/51885/shackcast-season-2-episode-1

Hi guys, I wrote up this post on my feelings on Duke Nukem. I like to see what everyone (especially the weekend confirmed crew thinks.)

Its a bit too long to post with the 5000 character limit here so if your interested you can read it here.

http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/demoskinos/duke-nukem-forever-probably-isnt-for-you-and-thats-okay/30-82087/

As the self-titled Chief Call of Duty Modern Warfare Cynicism Officer here, I feel the need to elaborate on the Modern Warfare 3 vitriol.

It is not, as Xav states, just hearing the name "Modern Warfare 3" and shitting all over it sight unseen. There is a deep history, with its roots at the BASHandSlash BASH123 podcast on October 17, 2009, when Robert Bowling announced that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 would not have dedicated servers on PC, and instead would impose forced matchmaking via a new service called IWNet. It continued on November 3, 2009, with a Best Buy chat session where Jason West, Vince Zampella, and Mackey McCandlish repeatedly downplayed and dismissed the advanced features that were in CoD4, but would not be in Modern Warfare 2. Most notable quote from that session: "We would like you to play the game the way we designed and balanced it." Subtext from that comment: "Hey PC game tweakers: SCREW YOU!"

Garnett Lee himself mentioned the phrase (I believe in Weekend Confirmed 12, the pre-E3 episode), "the rush to beat Call of Duty", which could have as easily been "the rush to BE Call of Duty". If you look at games like Crysis 2, Homefront, and Medal of Honor, they were trying to directly copy the gameplay mechanics from CoD4. Sadly, Medal of Honor was most likely successful enough for EA to fund Danger Close to make a sequel, which I fear will copy even more things from Modern Warfare 2, and be even more PC platform hostile. In terms of the storyline, I would like to play a PC first-person shooter with modern-day weapons, but I want the "bro" factor to be thrown out the window. I'd like to see a friendly NPC squad with classy, understated dialogue, toned-down effects that don't sway into the absurdity of Baysplosion-ism. But no, since Modern Warfare 2 sold eleventy billion units, we're getting Jesse Stern insane-cold-war-fanfic writing, Hans Zimmer "The Rock meets Crimson Tide meets Bad Boys meets Muscle Milk" soundtrack, and "clicking L3 and R3 at the same time is so VISCERAAALLLL!!!" quick-time events.

Fuck. That. I'd rather be playing Brink. Remember Brink? The game that the Weekend Confirmed guys and Jeff Gerstmann shat all over because "the bots in the XBox 360 version sucked and the grenades are all weak"? Yeah, that game, but on PC, connecting to dedicated servers administered by kind charitable souls in the Shacknews community. And adjusting the FOV to something not tunnel vision (though I'll have to check if they've fixed the FOV reset yet; unlike Infinity Ward, Splash Damage is patching their game at a fast rate).

Two more things for Garnett:
- Not "ten hours", if MW3 is anything like MW2, it will be 6 hours, maybe 5.5. After all of the hype from the gaming press's antics fueled by Bowling's propaganda machine, general opinions of MW2's single-player storyline was that it was short, not as good as CoD4, and had too much "Oscar Mike!"
- You forgot Jeff Cannata's remark on Call of Duty: Black Ops being exasperating because "it's always cranked up to 11". Instead, you went for "in MW3, you're always on the edge of your seat!" I agree with Jeff on Black Ops; there were times when they had the pace of the game way too fast, especially the Khe Sanh level with the janky scripting. I still don't know what the hell half of the dialogue in the first third of that level was; even with captioning turned on, I can never read through it, and I'm not motivated to try reading through it, because that was one of the worst levels in that game in terms of repeatable playability.

When it comes to making gameplay that tells narrative on it's own, what I'd really like to see is a seasoned adventure game developer like Chunsoft or Telltale get the chance to make something on a AAA engine. Could it ever happen? (Someone did once try to mod Monkey Island and Snatcher into the CryEngine)

For anyone out there who, like me, are looking for something to do with their 3DSs, I'd just like to say that Dream Trigger 3D turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

It's not by any means the best game ever made, in fact, you'll probably hate it for about the first hour or so, but if you stick with it, the unusual gameplay will eventually "click" and then the game becomes a trippy, fun, audio visual experience that combines a puzzle game with a rail shooter and bullet hell, and then just for good measure, blends the music into the gameplay, Lumines style. It's also the first game I've played that truly justifies the whole 3D thing, even if I personally don't use it for very long at a time on account of the headaches.

I wouldn't advocate buying a 3DS for this game, per se, but if you've got one, this might be something to check out, especially if you can get it for cheap.

Just wanted to spread the word.

Is there any chance in the future of Xav shooting Garnett multiple times and then pulling out his passport and yell, "diplomatic immunity!"?

Garnett, do you know which game kept some of its narrative in the gameplay? Deus Ex

When you're on the plane and Lebedev is about to be executed you can open fire on your partner and stop it. When Paul tells you to leave him behind because he's dying and can't come along you can stay there and save him. In neither case does the game tell you to choose; characters tell you what to do but you can defy them. You don't get a dialogue box where you can choose to kill someone.

Sad that Mr. Cannata won't be joining, otherwise this is a steller lineup.