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Weekend Confirmed 66 - FEAR 3, Shadows of the Damned
by Garnett Lee, Jun 24, 2011 11:00am PDTSettling in to summer, the Weekend Confirmed crew finds a stack of great games waiting to be played. Christian Spicer sits in with Xav, Jeff, and Garnett to talk F.E.A.R. 3, Shadows of the Damned, inFamous 2, Trenched, and more in Whatcha' Been Playin? The Warning gets started with a continuation of a discussion that started on twitter about whether names like Mizuguchi, Suda, Mikami, and Yamaoka generate big buzz. The group also looks at all the other big games hitting their 10th anniversary along with Halo and realizes 2001 was a pretty special year. The news and Finishing Moves bring it all home.
Weekend Confirmed Ep. 66: 06/24/2011
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If you're viewing this in the GameFly application, you can play Weekend Confirmed Episode 66 directly.
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 Part 1: Start: 00:00:00 End: 00:29:54
- Whatcha' Been Playin Part 2: Start: 00:30:28 End: 01:01:20
- Whatcha' Been Playin Part 3: Start: 01:02:26 End: 01:32:04
- Featured music "The Constant" by The Felix Culpa: Start: 01:32:04 End: 01:35:30
- The Front Page news: Start: 01:31:47 End: 02:06:53
The Felix Culpa is a four-piece band consisting of vocalist/guitarist Marky Hladish, bassist/vocalist Tristan Hammond, guitarist/vocalist Dustin Currier and drummer Joel Coan. From the Illinois/Wisconsin border, the band is best described as progressive indie with post-hardcore elements. They have released two full-length albums ("Commitment" and "Sever Your Roots"), an EP/DVD combo ("Thought Control"), a digital EP ("SoSo Remission") and are currently signed to No Sleep Records. They can be found online at Facebook, twitter, and on their official site.
The Felix Culpa are headed out on a short supporting tour w/ The Dear Hunter.
Tour Dates:
July 22nd - Minneapolis, MN Triple Rock
July 23rd - DeKalb, IL House Cafe
July 24th - Chicago, IL Lincoln Hall
July 26th - St. Louis, MO The Firebird
July 27th - Covington, KY Mad Hatter
July 28th - Grand Rapids, MI Pyramid SchemeKay
Original music in the show by Del Rio. Get his latest Album, The Wait is Over on iTunes. Check out more, including the Super Mega Worm mix and other mash-ups on his ReverbNation page or Facebook page, and follow him on twitter delriomusic.
Christian Spicer performs his stand-up comedy show around the country. For more info, including dates for upcoming shows, check out Christian Spicer's site.
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!
Remember to join the Official Facebook Weekend Confirmed Page and add us to your Facebook routine. We'll be keeping you up with the latest on the show there as well.
Comments
They are a source of different perspectives, ideas and aesthetics than their western counterparts. They are a source of variety.
They are no longer the leaders, pioneers or innovators within the industry, at least not in the direction that results in interest and enthusiasm west of their country.
The biggest problem for the Japanese development community is that their development processes are out-dated and insulated, which makes most of their products feel 'quirky' at the best of times, and outdated or infuriatingly broken otherwise.
If they could find a way to bring their perspectives and aesthetics to a western-style, efficient, polished development process, we would probably see more Japanese titles back at the top of hardcore gamers' must-play lists.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 18 replies.
In terms of the influence, I think we are starting to see the opposite happen where rather than the West taking some inspiration from Japanese or other Eastern sources, you're starting to see the Japanese or other Eastern sources taking inspiration from the West, but with their own take. Deadly Premonition plays mechanically like a "Japanese game" but you can see the "Americana" influences. Same with Dead Rising and Vanquish.
As for whether it is possible to still get Japanese works that (re)inspire Western developers, in terms of art, aesthetic and "out of the box" design, definitely. However I feel that because the way their game mechanics in general hasn't changed for the Western market (hence remaining comfortable with maintaining what works for them at present locally), that's going to be a barrier to entry towards influence. I mean just remember how many RPG rip-offs of Final Fantasy 7 around that era that weren't very good (Shadow Madness on Playstation, Silver on Dreamcast).
I think for those that reckon that Japanese gaming needs to "get with the times", my question is that should they start implementing much more of the Western game design, would it and how much risk would it be for the Japanese gaming to lose its identity?
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