Weekend Confirmed 99 - Double Fine, Reckoning, Cell HD: emergence

Jeff Mattas, your problem with the Metal Gear games sounds like more than simply an issue with the cinematic over-the-top action and melodrama, but more of a total disability of comprehending gameplay and control design philosophy on a holistic level, which is another way of saying: You're neck-deep in western game design and don't know heads from tails when looking at Japanese design and its demands.

My first suggestion is to stop trying to play Metal Gear Solid 4. It sounds as if you didn't even play 2 or 3, let alone to completion. You need to go back to Metal Gear Solid 1 (for PS1), as it is still mechanically sound and holds up to some degree. If you wish to tackle this struggle of yours, you need to reboot your gameplay comprehension away from modern western design bias.

The first thing to acknowledge is that the Metal Gear Solid control scheme design philosophy is based on action and function. I don't understand why you struggle with the idea of X being to crouch (especially when there are plenty of other games that do the same, like Call of Duty and Battlefield with the Circle button).

Tap X to crouch, hold X to prone. This is consistent across all of the 3D MGS games. Moving while crouched turns into crawl/prone, with exception to MGS4 and Peacewalker.

Square, for MGS1 (PS1) can be a little touchy. Grabbing a soldier from behind in the PS1 game requires Snake to stop moving. If your analog stick is tilted slightly, he'll throw the soldier, eventually alerting the alarm.

The Soliton Radar system and the First-Person view are your best friends. Treat the radar like you were playing Pacman. There is no shame in navigating while looking at the radar more than the game screen, unless there are claymores abound.

The Codec system is the game's Hint system. In ways, this is revolutionary game design as the codec is largely voluntary, but rewards the player with both hints and color commentary that expands the world's lore and character development. The Codec calls serve as a human connection to the story, generating endearment and involvement.

The controls vary or have minor tweaks throughout the series, sometimes having absurd button controls for aiming in first person while peeking around corners or over boxes/rails, but once you've played through them, you should gain a greater appreciation for MGS4 in that regard.

(To Xav: One of the main game design themes of Metal Gear Solid 3 was "Survival." Clearly you either ignored or forgot this during your playthrough. If it helps any, the HD collection provides a far superior and sleeker experience thanks to the lack of giant pixel aliasing in an otherwise busy jungle forest. Menus load faster too).

When you get to Metal Gear Solid 3, please keep in mind that the original control scheme expected the camera to be over-head, with the ability to click and lock the camera away from Snake's center. The Subsistence and HD Collection version of MGS3 loads the game set to the 3D camera set to default, but made no efforts to adjust gameplay controls to accommodate this (as these revisions were improved upon in MGS4).

Treat MGS3 more like an open-world game, catching and killing animals for food, sneaking through the high-grass, changing your camoflauge, etc, instead of a linear corridor shooter of some kind, or even the past MGS games. Let the setting set your pace.

(to be continued)

I cannot believe that BOTH Skyrim AND Metal Gear Solid were attacked for having lame stories this week! If Garnett and Jeff were there I hope they would have been as nerd-raged as I am right now.

Look, let's get this straight, no games have mastered "high art" storytelling to match classic mediums of literature, drama, or film. Even television has a notable lead(*cough* The Wire). But it's totally unfair to look at the best game stories and act like they are letting everyone down somehow.

Bottom Line:
People love these game stories because they want pulpy fan-service too. I want to live Game of Thrones, so I play Elder Scrolls. I want be Indiana Jones, so I play Uncharted. I want be James Bond with a dash of Tarantino, I play MGS.

These games aren't trying to be Lord of the Rings or Citizen Kane; they are trying to make our FAVORITE stories interactive, not our BEST stories

Jeff's discussion of Kingdom's of Amalur: Reckoning, and the comments about Dungeon Siege, made it sound like he just isn't a fantasy RPG fan. "the shield of what and all these crazy names", "the town of whatever", and his general ambivalence about the story and dialog. Why do fantasy RPGs need to appeal to people who don't like made up names? don't like reading or listening to long dialog about obscure events? Isn't that the WHOLE POINT OF A FANTASY RPG? You are supposed to learn about the world, exist in the world, suspend disbelief, otherwise whats the point?


The way the discussion of the game was mixed in with Uncharted, as well as Christian's comments about his "gamer identity" made me think a lot about this "Mainstreaming" of games that seems to be going on. It used to be that you know what types of games you liked and didn't like. RPG, action, adventure, open-world, RTS, sports , racing, puzzle, etc. It used to be assumed that if you weren't the type of person who liked fantasy RPGs, you would not like even a masterpiece RPG like Baldur's Gate; the same way that If you don't like racing games you aren't going to like even the best racing game.

Some of my favorite games of all time are text-adventures. I'd hate to think what the mainstream press would say about Zork Zero these days. The game is incredible, but only for a certain type of gamer. I feel like we have lost those genre distinctions and if a game is truely 10/10 it has to appeal to everyone even your mom..

Ever since the NES era there has always been a large sphere of "mainstream games" that appeal to most gamers. Side-scrollers, action games, fighting games generally had broad appeal and just about anyone could review them. But most other genres are pretty niche and you only review them if you happen to like that genre. It would be meaningless for me to review ANY iPhone game, any racing game, any sports game, because to me they are all a complete waste of time. Why in the world would I waste time playing Jetpack joyride when I've got Saint's Row 3, Skyrim, KoA:R and 10 more top-shelf titles waiting for my attention!?

I realize Jeff did like KoA:R and I'm just using him to going on a bit of a rant here but still, I'm not sure he is really the target audience. Certainly everyone has a right to their opinion on every game, but I think the community needs to be reminded that games fit into certain genres for a reason. You aren't supposed to play a racing game if you don't like driving, and you aren't supposed to play an RPG if you don't like lore and background, and PRETENDING. A lot of times when I hear RPG reviews these days they don't sound like RPG reviews, they sound like "How much fun is this RPG for a cynical ADHD gamer?"

I would just like to say:

Todd Howard of Bethesda is completely full of shit.

http://kotaku.com/5885358/why-skyrim-didnt-play-nice-with-the-ps3

"We did a ton more testing this time around, so the game is definitely our most solid release regardless of platform,"

"Tons" more testing. What a douche. The game was broken for a month and a half. The man deserves a class action law suit for selling a faulty product that *still* doesn't work properly.

Hey guys-

So I just finished a book called Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline, and it was awesome! The story totally scratched my nostalgia itch by referencing games, music, movies and pop culture of the 70's and 80's. It's also a very well written story for Cline's first foray into writing novels. You should definitely pick it up and talk about it on your show, I would love to hear what you guys think of it.

Since I started it, I've been dusting off old consoles and plugging them back in to relive those gaming moments from the past! I also spent some nice cash on the Virtual Console. Playing these games remind me how most of the complex games of today grew from simple foundational concepts found in the old 8-bit era gems.

I also want to let you guys know that I am a fan of the show and think you are doing great! Bring back kanataforda games.

BTW I am in no way affiliated with Ernest Cline. I just really liked the book!

Game that was universally praised that I absolutely hated? Bayonetta.

Please! Excellent podcast, the best videogame podcast out there. BUT - please learn something from radio shows, when talking about a subject, please end the conversation with stating what you were talking about.

There have been so many instances where I thought, "DAMN, I want to play the game they are talking about!". Only to realize I missed the title and it was never repeated.

Anyone getting a vita this week?

I'm getting mine next week I couldn't see fronting the money on a lame game for early access. I'm getting the 3G mostly because Jeff canatta said something that made sense. Spend the extra $50 now just in case they do something really cool with it latter.

So a week and a day after the vita release I'm getting one with marvel VS. Capcom 3 and a 32 gig memory card:) what are you guys getting?

Just want to say I big time agree with Christian when he called out Jeff Cannata on loving things then not actually loving them all that much. I love Jeff but sometimes he just loves too much and it is hard to appreciate when he really likes something.

In his defense he is in a job where he always has to stay on top of the latest games and there is only so much time in the day. Maybe if he wasn't Raptoman would reach the level cap, his minecraft world would still be growing and he would still be talking about how much fun he is still having in swtor on the next show.

Hey Garnet, Del Rio, you guys should do a little historical perspective on WC. I am really interested like how you guys got together to do this podcast? Like how did Jeff got picked to be the co-chair of WC versus some of the other 1-up guys. Or how did Christine, who isn' t really in the industry, got involved with WC? What were some of the challenges and disappointments. Also what you guys wanted to do that was different then the other gaming podcasts out there like HotSpot, Giant Bomcast, etc....

I love the production guys, keep it up.

Happy one hundred episodes guys. My favourite moment is from one of the first episodes that aired. I posted a question to you and it was very amusing listening to you guys trying to pronounce my swedish chat name snubbelfot75 (it means something along the lines of tripfoot75).
Another favourite moment was when I found out that mr Cannata was going to be on the show....he is almost as awesome as Garnett, but he really should disagree with, and challenge Garnett more so we could get some interesting discussions going. That goes for the rest of you as well .Don't take disagrement personally Jeff , it makes for an interesting show. Just watch Shane go at it with mr. Lee , it's great. Shane Bettenhausen is also one of my favourite guests btw. Jaffe was awesome as well, see to it that he gets to sit in again!

My whole message seems a little harsh, it would have been a lot smoother and less direct if my english was better :) .

Keep up the great work ! You guys are producing some of the most inteligent and great radio that ever graced the internet.

//Niklas

With episode 100 around the corner, I thought it would be fun for all of us to share our favorite/stand-out Weekend Confirmed memories.

I'll go first:

One day in April 2010, I was standing in line waiting to check-in at Toronto Pearson airport. I was leaving for a 4-say trip down to Nashville to tour a few guitar factories.... an all-expenses paid trip, during which I would be spending a lot of my boss's money. It was an honor to be invited, and an honor that my boss agreed to send me, so needless to say I wanted to be very respectable and professional.

The check-in lineup was unusually long.... So long in fact that airport staff were making their way up and down the line and asking passengers which flight they were on so that they could bump them ahead in line if need be.

Weekend Confirmed had just recently started, and I'd downloaded the first few episodes to enjoy on my trip. As I stood in line, I was listening to the infamous "All games are better in co-op" debate. I was so engrossed in the show that I didn't notice the airline attendant call out my flight number and move all passengers to the front of the line. AN HOUR LATER I was STILL standing in the check-in line, starting to worry that I might miss my flight. I got the attention of one of the airline staff, and they told me that check-in for my flight had already closed.

Now in complete panic, I rushed to the front of the line, sped through check in, and proceeded to SPRINT through the airport. Not a self-concious "I'm too embarassed to really run" half-sprint, but a full blown Tom Cruise Mission Impossible 4 chase-scene sprint.

Since I'm in Canada, all the other travelers apologized and got out of my way as I dashed past them. By the time I cleared airport security, I had 7 minutes before my plane was scheduled to take off. I stood a chance. I just might make it.

I got to an intersection in the departures terminal and looked for my gate. To my surprise, my gate was not located along either of the 2 long hallways branching off in front of me. I followed a sign which directed me down a flight of stairs...... to a bus stop. My plane was departing from a seperate building on the other side of the runway.

Pretty much all hope drained from my body at this point. With nothing else to do, I stood and waited 10 minutes for the bus to show up. As it drove across the tarmac, I caught a glimpse of my terminal building. There was a row of 6 departure gates, and every single one of them still had a plane parked next to it. I didn't know which plane was mine, but it was still on the ground.

With a complete lack of regard for my fellow travelers, I shoved my way to the door and left the bus at a full sprint. I spotted my gate. The last passenger was making his way down the entrance ramp. Exhausted, out of breath, and dripping with sweat, I came to a crashing halt and presented my boarding pass.

"Cutting it a little close" said the airline attendant as she waved me on to the plane.

The best part? Through this entire event, I was mentally screaming "OF COURSE ALL GAMES ARE BETTER WHEN YOU PLAY THEM WITH A FRIEND!!! HOW COULD ANYONE SAY THEY AREN"T!! GAAAAHHHHRR!!!!!"

;p

Happy Episode 100 guys. Thanks for the show, and keep up the great work!

I'm with Indie Jeff on not liking Metal Gear games. I find the melodrama, characters, and writing to be laugh-out-loud bad. While the stealth gameplay was fine in the first game, I never liked how once you were caught it was difficult to aim, shoot, and be the bad-ass that you are supposed to be.

I'm also with the other Jeff on being a GTA hater. I find them to be good sandboxes, but bad games unlike Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption, and Saints Row the Third which are good games and good sandboxes.

Just thought I'd let the Jeffs know they aren't freaks for not liking such well-loved games! I swear I'm not trying to troll, just agree with opinions previously shared for some hater-solidarity.

Gaming franchise I want back.

Shinning force 4- done with the gameplay of Valkyrie chronicles:)

Final fight/ Streets of rage- don't ask me how but I'd love to see these games graphics up and new age gameplay systems.

And of course mutant league football;) never going to happen:(

Starwars in 3D is in the theaters and I just wanted to say to all those morons out there that say the new starwars are dumb. One word "Ewoks!" BOOM! That's pretty much it a bunch of midget bears toppled the empire great story telling guys;)

As a follow up to last weeks discussion:

Shackers, what are your white whales of gaming?

What are those accomplishments you obsessively try and try again to achieve and it just never seems to happen? Maybe it's a game you love that you just can't finish, or a game you want to love but just can't get the hang of. Maybe it's as specific as a certain achievement you've been trying to years to unlock, or as broad as wanting to get into a certain genre.

I'll start

- I want to get into Pac Man: Championship Edition, and I just can't. I love the game, I think it's fantastic, but try as I might, I just can't get good at it, at all. My score fluctuates between pitiful and laughably pitiful, and I have no idea what I did differently to cause some games to turn out better than others. I've watched videos, asked for help on forums, you name it, nothing I do seems to break through.

- I want to one day actually finish an Atlus RPG. Sometimes it's just a matter of circumstances, but most of the time, I just flat out hit a brick wall. For the longest time, it was Strange Journey, which I'd pick up, give up out of frustration, then try again a little later, get a bit farther, give up again, and so on. By the time I quit the game for good, Devil Survivor: Overclocked came out and pretty much took Strange Journey's place. I know I'm very close to the end of this one, but I'm as stuck as ever.

I think I might one day manage my way through Baroque (technically a Sting RPG, published by Atlus) but only if I follow a guide pretty much step by step. Don't even get me started on The Dark Spire.

(Radiant Hystoria, on the other hand, didn't have this problem, but I just never had a chance to get back into it before losing my copy.)

- Three words: Shiren the Wanderer. I love this game, I love the fact that you die a lot, and each death is kind of like a discreet playthrough, only with a few side benefits that carry over. That said, beating this game can't be THAT hard, but I've been at it off and on for years.

and lastly

- The "hell run" in Cave Story. Some of you know what I'm talking about.

Do you want to be a part of the 100th Episode? We are accepting audio files now that we will insert to the 100th episode. Leave your Favorite moment of weekend confirmed or just a simple happy 100th. Make sure to include your name (either real or twitter or chatty name) Make sure you get a good recording that is clear and try and keep them under 30seconds. Send your audio files to weekendconfirmedmusic@gmail.com and make sure to get them to us by no later than Wednesday at 5pm PST.

DelRioooooooooooo - thanks for the show man

Isn't calling a style of game you don't like "stupid" kind of the opposite of being "comfortable" in your "gamer skin." I'm comfortable enjoying MMO's, RPG's, and Adventure games but I don't think other kinds of games are "stupid", just maybe not for me. :\

I realize that was maybe throw away comment just to make a point, but it just kinda grabbed me the wrong way.

Good show though! :)

if you want a good laugh (or are in the mood for some uninformed attempt at writing) read this
http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/5-video-game-franchises-break-192537661.html
(I honestly have no idea why I even check yahoo, it is a horrible website...especially when it comes to writing about games).

Great show guys!

RE: Microtransactions in Gotham City Imposters.

I think the idea of purchasing customizations for your in-game character will be surprisingly successful. Everything I've heard about the game leads me to believe that it is actually quite good. If that is the case, then hopefully it will enjoy reasonable sales.

Once people are playing the game, the costume upgrades will sell themselves. All it takes is for people to see other players running around with cool stuff on and they'll want to visit the store too. That's how it works for similar items in games like Gears of War 3... I saw people running around with cool weapon skins, so I went and bought a couple for myself.

In regards to games that everyone loves that I don't,I was recently trying to play through Dead Space for the first time.Couldn't do it.got a little bit past the part where you have to shoot the asteroids from the turret.After that,I just got tired to the manufactured scares and the weak controls.The game is nothing more than a monster closet fetch quest.

Another game that I really couldn't stand to finish is Uncharted 3.Sorry,but the best way to ruin a game for me is to have terrible controls,which this game did,imo.I don't care how good the story is,if the controls suck,that completely takes me out of the game.Good story is important,but the reason that I play games is to actually enjoy playing them.This is the reason why I liked Prototype so much.The story is just ok,but the actual gameplay is what kept me going.

A game that I loved that most hated is Brink.

With all of the "same-'ol,same 'ol" shooters out there,Brink was the only one that dared to try something innovative.Unfortunately,gamers,no matter how much they complain about how MW is the same every year,or that games aren't doing anything different anymore,here comes a game that did do something different,yet gamers reverted back to their comfy old shoes.

I understand that the tech issues at the beginning turned a lot of people off,but once they were fixed,what was the excuse?My guess is the lack of stats which highly encourages teamwork above all else,also discourages the typical KDR dick measuring competition that is ubiquitously present in all shooters.

Cell HD: emergence looks cool. I'll wait till it is on steam or is included in a Humble Bundle.

I recently wrote an article for a local blog talking about how artists can utilize these alternative pay scales to expand on their fanbase and notability. Just seeing how Double Fine has utilized Kickstarter as a funding platform, but is utilizing it as a source of advertisement and a way of expanding the amount of people that are excited about this game. Just look at how many people are talking about this project simply because of the amazing success that they have had in funding it. I'm certain that they would not be getting the same amount press if they simply announced that they were developing a game and it would be out on x day, so be ready. Even if they kept with the idea of documenting the development process, I doubt as many people would be talking about it as they are now.
This not only adds to the developer/gamer relationship by allowing the people that have added their money to feel they have a direct connection into the making of this game. Even if they don't have a say in what direction the game goes or what the content actually is, they know that they are partially responsible for this game being able to be made, and I think that those gamers will have a specific connection with this game because of it.
I think that a lot of bigger game companies have lost sight of the relationship they can have with gamers other than "We create this content, you buy it". Indie game studios can't afford to lose that relationship because word of mouth is really the only advertising option they have unless they have a larger company behind them that can handle that (like games on Xbox Live that have Microsoft advertising their game for them). Just look at Notch and Minecraft. That game was in Beta so long because Notch continued working and tweaking the things that the people that were playing it were responding to. He fully nurtured that relationship between himself and his fans so that he could not only better understand what his fans wanted, but what he could do to continue bettering his product.
I think it requires a certain amount of passion and pride that really only Indie game developers can fully express to allow for these alternative methods of getting your product out without retail releases and $60 price points. A company that the WC team mentions is Rocksteady, who create fantastic games, and I know that they are all very passionate about what they are working on. But there are so many people working in that studio that they are simply not capable of producing that concentrated passion that is so attractive on a personal level to gamers. People were drawn to Minecraft because of the content of the game, but also because of the obvious personal love and care that Notch poured into what he was making.
I'm not trying to say that the people at larger studios are not passionate or do not love the things that they are doing, quite the opposite. I think they have just as much passion as any Indie developer might, but when you have one or two people working on a project, gamers can relate to that passion on a much more personal level and I think that's what Double Fine is tapping into with this Kickerstarter venture. They want to reproduce that personal connection with their fans that Indie development studios can produce much more naturally. And obviously they are succeeding.

Here's my article, just incase you guys would be interested in reading it:
http://www.districthill.com/2012/02/09/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-music/

Am I the only one who thought Christian Spicer was sort of an old Southern gentleman, dressed somewhat like Col. Sanders?

Yo Xav.

I thought you'd be happy to know that someone is developing a new Shadowrun game... a REAL Shadowrun game.

It looks like it's going to be an online, browser-based affair, but at least it's an RPG. People who worked on the P&P game are involved in some form.

http://cliffhanger-productions.com/content/list/details/id/65