Chatty: Diablo III, Dragon's Dogma
FileShack: Unity of Command, Skyjacker
Daily Filter: Planetside 2, Deadlight
Weekend PC digital deals: strategy-o-rama
38 Studios, Harry Potter Kinect - Shacknews Daily: May 25, 2012
Weekend Confirmed 85 - Ratchet & Clank: All for One, Uncharted 3, GTA5
by Xav de Matos, Nov 04, 2011 11:00am PDTOnly a few blocks off the beach that inspired the virtual clone in seen in its opening, the Grand Theft Auto V trailer sparked the imagination when the Weekend Confirmed crew sat down to record this week's show. James Stevenson of Insomniac Games and Ariel Angelotti of Q-Games join Jeff and Garnett to speculate about the potential for Rockstar's next entry in the series before moving on to a number of other games, including two from their respective studios. Producer Dave Mabee hops on the mic to add his take on Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One, and then it's on to PixelJunk Sidescroller. Lord of the Rings: War in the North and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim also square off, and there's an update on the latest news including the $50 price tag for Resident Evil on the 3DS. Wrap it all up with Finishing Moves and it's another epic Weekend Confirmed in the books.
Weekend Confirmed Ep. 85: 11/04/2011
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If you're viewing this in the GameFly application, you can play Weekend Confirmed Episode 85 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:
Show Breakdown:
Round 1 00:00:36 – 00:27:37
Whatcha Been Playing Part 1 00:28:04 – 00:59:23
Whatcha Been Playing Part 2 01:00:20 – 01:28:44
Featured Music Break: 01:28:44 – 01:32:02 Simon Jain – 'Last Exit'
Listener Feedback/Front Page News 01:32:02 – 02:07:11
NFL Tailgate 02:07:54 – 02:13:28
Featured muscleman Simon Jain has always held a certain presence in a room. His demeanor and persona often replicate in detail his music style; wild, brooding, seemingly out of control, yet subtly contained in the right places. He is known for an exuberance and charisma behind the dex held by few, and consistently displayed by even fewer.
Download Purchase "Last Exit" on iTunes (USA Link) and Beatport.
Follow Simon Jain on Twitter and 'Like' him on Facebook.
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.
Jeff Cannata 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!
You can also follow guest hosts James Stevenson from developer Insomniac and Ariel Angelotti of Q-Games on Twitter.
Follow the Weekend Confirmed hosts on Twitter, too! Garnett Lee @GarnettLee, Jeff Cannata @jeffcannata, and Xav de Matos @xav.
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
But something weird happened, the Nazgul's dragons were missing from the movies. Then they attacked me in Skyrim, and I thought, omg it really does have ALL the dragons.
Then I lifted my head off the keyboard and kept playing.
Just remembering that aspect of Fallout 3 makes me cringe.
Glad to see they have really addressed that in Skyrim.
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I know it's been done at least once before in Bioshock 2, where the whole multiplayer component had it's own narrative hooks that tied into the world of Rapture, and it may have happened before or since that as well. But the idea seems to be picking up steam lately with three big name titles.
Next week Assassin's Creed Revelations ships. Players that level up in the multiplayer component and complete certain challenges will gain access 'behind the curtain' of the Templar organization, giving players a different look at the Assassin/Templar war they've been fighting.
Mass Effect 3 will let players affect their standing in the single-player world through their performance in the multiplayer component. If certain players don't particularly wish to engage in a ton of side-quests that involve traveling, dialogue trees or what-not, and just enjoy shooting their way through the universe, they can stick to the main quest and use their multiplayer performance to ensure a better ending.
Max Payne 3 will include storyline elements as well, according to writer Dan Houser. Exactly what kind and how they will be implemented is still a little hazy.
Personally, I LOVE this trend. It feels like a great way to get people like Jeff, who are multiplayer-averse, to dip their toe into the multiplayer world. Especially in the case of non-traditional multiplayer modes like Assassin's Creed, which Jeff eventually found himself loving once he got over his aversion to it.
What are your thoughts on the trend?
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It had difficult subject matter (home-grown terrorism), terrifying scenarios, problems that needed to be solved on-the-fly that changed your approach (capping cops in the knees so not to kill them).
Oh my god, I want it now!
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Is it just that I don't have a huge HD television or surround sound system that I would consider lying in bed playing a handheld game to be an acceptable use of the device? Would I feel differently if I had a nicer couch on which to play my console games? Or is superior tech for the sake of superior tech really that much of a draw for people? (my guess is "no," but that doesn't help the argument make any more sense)
When one is in an environment where both console and portable games are available, why is it just broadly assumed that they'd rather play the console games?
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There always seems to be a lot of talk about there not being “any good games” for Kinect. When someone sites a game like The Gunstringer, the reply is “Well, what else is there?” I mean, will we ever be satisfied if the response is always “Well, what else is there?”
The truth is there are several great games out for Kinect. Currently, my Kinect game collection is a follows: Dance central 1-2, Child of Eden, Gunstringer/Kinect Ninja, Kinect Sports 1-2, Kinectimals, and Power up Heroes. I also plan to buy Once Upon a Monster and Disneyland. I guess my point is, embrace Kinect for what it does best, as opposed to loathing it for what it isn’t.
We as gamers have this habit of thinking that all games have to be all things to all gamers (and if it doesn’t fit in our paradigm for what a hardcore game is, then it isn’t worth playing). I know some will claim “Well, they promised me hardcore games.” I think even when the “hardcore” games finally arrive, gamers will still be unsatisfied and respond with “But now where are our harder-core games”. When will it end?
Furthermore, a Kinect game doesn’t have to hold your attention for 8 hrs in one sitting to be a good game. It doesn’t have to somehow be integrated into hardcore experiences to be worthy of our acknowledgments. Let’s do away with this paradigm of what’s “good” because that paradigm is created from non-kinect game experiences. Instead, let’s create a new paradigm for what’s a “good” Kinect title. IMO, a good Kinect title is something that gets me moving, in short bursts and engages me in a way that my controller can’t. Nothing more, nothing less. Using that paradigm, there are several great Kinect titles to play. Enjoy!
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Anyway as for CODMW3 I strangely find myself more attracted to the single-player portion of the game than the multiplayer. I've said on a couple of occasions that I'm done with COD multiplayer, and I still am, but I wonder why the single-player portion is what I want to play. The series got me with that trailer for All Ghillied Up and then it hooked me with it's multiplayer, until MW2 at least. Does anyone else feel this way?
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Modern Warfare 3.
I got the game a little early thanks to a local retailer that breaks street-date more often than not. And I guess I'm enjoying it.
Spec Ops is once again the high point of the game for me, and once again likely to be completely overlooked in the face of the copy/paste multiplayer that the masses can't seem to get enough of.
As for that MP, it's solid as it ever was. If you loved it before, you'll love it now. I've been getting progressively more bored with each of the COD games (COD4 - 8 months, MW2 - 5 months, Black Ops - 2 weeks), so I'm not sure how long this game will keep me away from BF3 or Halo Anniversary, no matter how many of my friends are playing.
But Andrea and the like are legitimately fucking nuts if they think that the tweaked point-streak system will have a significant impact on how people play or can play the game. Getting another point for capping points in Dom is nice, but you're still relying on kills to crank out the killstreak rewards. So those who played well before, will play well now, and those who didn't, are still gonna get their asses reamed.
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First, would you agree that there is an expected level of speed, precision, responsiveness, etc for most game mechanics such as aiming, moving, camera....? When a game's controls fall outside of those expectations is that often what people call "poor controls"?
Second, do you think controls that fall outside of those expectations can add to the game experience or are they always a downside?
There are probably a bunch of games that people could love/hate but I'm not really asking about a specific game as much as the idea that non-standard controls can add to a game so here's an example that shouldn't cause too much discussion around the game itself... in the first Splinter Cell game Sam's gun skills were intentionally poor (relatively speaking) to hep make the point that he was older and not a super solder type. Is there any merit to this idea?
Personally I kind of like when a game's controls have a different feel to them.
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I see what Garnett is getting at with the Dark Souls idea in GTA, but no - keep it out.
Can you imagine trying to finish a mission, like a car chase for example, and someone suddenly invades your mission and runs you off the road. You fail the mission because someone came in and screwed up your game.
NO thank you. If you want to use the sandbox analogy, it would be like building a sandcastle and someone else coming over and kicking it over.
It just wouldn't work.
My vote goes to a tie-in with the next Warner Bros. 300 film slated for 2013. I can only dream of how well Rocksteady would design a fighting system in the world of the Spartans.
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Cave Story! =D
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Crysis 2 is my favorite single-player FPS of the year thus far, with RAGE being a close runner-up. I loved the whole 'combat bubbles' idea. You had a driving sense of forward momentum throughout the entire experience, but the major battle set-pieces were where you could stretch the legs of your suit and experiment with how to tackle different enemy encounters.
I often find that the best single-player FPS experiences are about crowd control. Halo and Crysis both do this, while CoD and now BF3 are both about quick reaction and memorization. It gets boring after the first play-through.
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I'm thinking of perhaps PAX East for a change (plus I'll be able to get a hockey game or two in before the end of the season - like that Xav? Go Leafs!)
So guys... what are your thoughts? PAX Prime? PAX East? E3? Another?
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Whether you like it or not, the gunfights help one appreciate all of the other elements and allow those moments to stand out.
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Speaking as somebody who also doesn't really go for tower defense games, what did you think of Horde Mode 2.0 in Gears of War 3?
Cause for my money, that's the best tower defense game ever made.
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As a New Yorker I can say that they were pretty accuratel with their depiction of New York. Manhattan was impressive but seeing as how I was from Brooklyn it wowed me to no end how close they were with the Brooklyn facsimile. I recognized so many areas when I was traveling through Brooklyn.
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The 3DS was at 6.68 million units through the end of September, with 2 titles at plus a million shipped or sold. That's 2 titles out of what like twenty with a 1 out of every 6.6 attach rate at least. So after the holiday we should assume that the 3DS will be north of 10 million and by march they may be closer to that 16 million projected than first thought.
Plenty of software on the horizon. So are handhelds really struggling or is it just the need to have a story.
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The biggest case this year has been Final Fantasy Type-0. Playing the Japanese demo, to me it played like a console game, possibly even better than XIII, but Square Enix chose not to release it on the PSP outside of Japan because they know it won't sell. We think they might already be dubbing it but we don't know on what. Some have suggested an HD version for the PS3 if that whole initiative works out. Personally, there are a lot of DS games that I would probably play more if there were iOS versions.
I think a really good solution would be to bring back the equivalent of the Super Game Boy (or Game Boy Player). The Vita definitely needs to have an HDMI out (at least an adapter), or Sony and Nintendo should maybe do some kind of cross-platform functionality with those games. If I could also play Vita games on the PS3 (or just hook up my Vita to a TV), or also play my DS games on the Wii U, I would be a lot more likely to buy them, knowing I can play the games both at home on my HDTV and on the go.
Technically Sony's PSP HD remaster program is kinda already doing this since the save files are supposed to be inter-compatible between version (does it work like that for God of War?) Hideo Kojima's Transfarring feature will make save files inter-compatible between Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and the original PSP version of Peace Walker. If the Vita ended up becoming something like that - a portable PS3 of sorts, I wouldn't mind.
haha I have to say I am that guy Jeff and I thought I was the only one. I used to do this all the time in SWTOR. Got to make sure you are striking a great pose, or you have a great scenic shot.
Glad to know I am not the only one.
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And yes the 360 controller it's just better for FPS, no one wants to buy a 3rd party controller just to have the sticks in the right place, and triggers rather than buttons.
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And I'm sorry but giant bomb nailed it every time you die or the gameover screen hits it completely breaks the feeling that makes the game magical. So much of the game is trial and why'd I die, well let's do that awesome looking scene again and run left? (I'm talking about the truck chase in part 2.)
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Also - I think Garnett's found the winning team. More Like This Please.
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Just before anything I know this is related to last week, but that show was awesome... and fun to listen to
Haven't heard this one yet
But thanks for the last week