Weekend Confirmed 86 - Skyrim, Modern Warfare 3, Saints Row the Third
by Garnett Lee, Nov 11, 2011 11:11am PSTThe Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Modern Warfare 3 arrived this week and the Weekend Confirmed crew takes a little break from playing them to share their stories from the games. Wouldn't you know, a cold bug seems to be sweeping through the offices as well, laying out Xav and sapping Garnett. He carries on, though, joined by Jeff and Christian because the show must go on. And boy does it. Saints Row the Third also got into the mix of what we've been playing and we take a look at whether it's odd to play portable games from the comforts of our couch and what we learned about Mass Effect 3 from the beta that briefly leaked out on Live. As always, we wrap it all up with Finishing Moves and our football Tailgate.
Weekend Confirmed Ep. 86: 11/11/2011
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If you're viewing this in the GameFly application, you can play Weekend Confirmed Episode 86 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 00:00:00 to 00:23:43
Whatcha Been Playing Part 1 00:24:16 to 00:47:07
Whatcha Been Playing Part 2 00:48:06 to 01:14:17
Featured Music Break: 01:14:17 to 01:17:00 Cool Party Guys, 'Stanky'
Listener Feedback/Front Page News 01:17:00 to 01:52:22
NFL Tailgate 01:53:05to 01:59:47
Billy Bonnell and Greg Santos are part of the sketch comedy group Cool Party Guys which also features Christian Spicer. The song was produced by a guy who has worked with Lonely Island and some top 40 rappers. The video was directed and edited by none other than Mega 64's own Derrick Acosta.
Watch the video on YouTube
Buy 'Stanky' on iTunes
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!
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.
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Comments
Me and the other moderators at Halo Waypoint have been running a podcast for about a month now. Last night we were recording a special "Halo CE Retrospective" episode in anticipation of Halo Anniversary. We were talking about the differences between playing Halo multiplayer 10 years ago and playing multiplayer today. One of the key differences we kept coming back to was the drastic destinction between playing in a room with your friends, vs playing against strangers online.
In the days of Halo CE LAN parties, the game itself wasn't the primary focus... it was the interaction with your friends. You were all sharing an experience together. You'd share stories afterwards, reliving your favorite moments. You would rarely remember if you actually won or last a particular game, but you'd remember the time your friend threw a shoe at you from across the room after you killed him 3 times in a row with a rocket launcher.
As console FPS multiplayer shifted towards a fully online experience, many of us were playing with strangers the majority of the time. Thanks to the unfortunate tendancy for some people to become jerks over the internet, we all started to communicate less and less with the people we gamed with. The focus of online play has shifted away from the social experience. This leaves you with nothing but your score, win/loss record, and kill/death ratio to focus on.
One of my co-hosts likened online competitive play to a constant state of road-rage. You are surrounded by a sea of gamers who seem determined to cheer themselves up by ruining your day. You no longer have fun WITH the other players.... you have fun by pissing them off before they piss you off. You get a kill and say "Yes!!! That guy must be so pissed right now!".
I've been making a concious effort to take part in a lot more community playdates over the past couple of months. I've been amazed by how much of a difference it makes to be playing games of Halo Reach with 15 other people I know. It becomes a social experience again, rather than a purely "competitive" one. I think the next great challenge for multiplayer gaming is to find a way to bring a true social element back into focus.
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A friend of mine and I played at a Halo tournament some years back, and we were paired up against some no-life 13 year old kids (yeah, you know, THOSE kids you meet online) sitting across from us who were admittedly destroying us, but also talking so much general (non-racial or homophobic of course) trash (as well as the good old teabagging!), and the moderators there did nothing. I think that was the only time in my life I almost got myself arrested on serious charges. Kid's grandparents were there after all, wouldn't have been nice. I'm pretty sure the old man said "Get him, Jimmy!" at one point as I was being teabagged.
Point - don't we all wish we could meet these antagonizers in real life some day? :P
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