Weekend Confirmed 119 - Spec Ops: The Line, Halo 4

Props to Sess for telling it like it is regarding Nintendo. I jumped ship after the SNES and haven't regretted it. There's only so much Mario, Zelda and Metroid I can take. I'm still a gamer, but I've long grown up. And a 3DSXL without a second analog stick is just insulting in this day and age. Nintendo is NEVER GOING TO GET IT.

By god, how much I have missed The Sess. Without Adam's amazing literati ranting, aesthetic cultural theory, and whimsical wit, I have felt a significant drop in pleasure in video game news. All of that is exempt of Weekend Confirmed though, because Garnet, Jeff and friends plus the Sess = win.

Also 3XL woo woo! :|

Halo 4 needs 8 gigs to play multiplayer there's the nugget that's been hidden for how long...

I know, I know, not that big a deal. I bought a 360 early and have/had 20 gig drive, and refuse to pay the outrageous price they want for more space. Over the years I've not bought many games digitally, or from xbla because of that. Now I have less than 2 at any given time. Ugh I get it this is a me problem, but I guess I'm passing on halo I was getting kind of excited about cortana and chief oh well...

You know I thought to myself if square isn't going to remake FF7. Why haven't they actually done a FF7-2 like so many recent ff. keep the materia system, and limit breaks which by the way still the best magic system in any Final fantasy.

Materia- allowed you to swap in any character regardless of level they had value.

Limit break forced you to save your power attack. Thus not allowing you to simply hit attack, attack, attack, and made you actually use magic and elixir to replenish magic. So you could use the limit break in a must use scenario.

Garnett,

I disagree vehemently with your take on Spec Ops.

There are a few important distinctions that I think need to be made when discussing the game that you missed.

1) The Delta Force members are never the aggressor in the game. Every time you encounter a new enemy type (be it the 33rd or the Exiled), they fire on you first. In fact, the entire first gunfight with the 33rd is in self-defense, with you and your teammates continually telling them that you're friendly. There's no opportunity to humanize any of your enemies because they keep shooting at you.

2) The other members of your squad constantly talk about the things that are happening on the battlefield, and the atrocities that Walker is committing. They question his orders over and over, and get into fights amongst themselves.

3) The idea that Walker is looking for someone to blame is the KEY POINT of the story. That's the whole thing, right there. He has done such horrible things (especially in chapter 8), that he feels he needs to justify them and by placing the blame on Konrad, he feels as though that's a proper scapegoat. The whole thing is folly. There is no scapegoat that can make the things he's done right.

4) There's a clear point in the story where Walker loses grip on reality. It's during chapter 8. The trauma of that moment puts the entire rest of the game's narrative into motion. Walker was so traumatized by what he ordered that he literally snapped and lost his grip on what was real. He went into an instant dissociative state. Just because they didn't beat you over the head with it (and risk telegraphing their ending), doesn't mean in didn't happen.

I don't like to tell people they missed the point, but all of the things that you criticize the game's narrative for have their purpose in making the themes of the story clear.

Great show once again guys.

But I think Garnett you were "FAR TOO ARSH" against Spec Ops the Line ( it's nearly sounded personal ).

I'm playing the game at the moment ( chapter 5 ) and I'm enjoying it a lot. That's great shooter ! The gameplay is great ( except for the grenade ), the cover system works really well. The sand mechanic works really well, that's a pity we don't use it that often... The environnement are really impressive. That's a great looking game, that have more color that many Unreal Engine 3 games ( Arkham games anyone ).

That said.

I see where you coming from Garnett. Yager promised a different type of shooter, where decision making and emotions will take the center stage. I have to say that until now, decision making is nowhere to be scene. I had more decision to make in Gears games ! That says a lot...Besides despite the great voice acting, I just can't get attached to any of those characters, unlike Gears where the characters are so enjoyable and full of color.

I will reserve my final judgment when I finish the game, but I have to agree until now with the tons of 80s the game is getting. It's 8/10 game for sure. Not more, not less.

That's a pity that Yager failed to deliver on the promises, is it possible that 2K is behind this ? This would explain the delay. Maybe 2K did not fancy anything funky and ordered Yager to go back to the basics.

Loved the discussion of Spec Ops: The Line and the problems with trying to inject narrative in action games.

I think the problem might be very simple, most action games are purely about nonstop action. The sheer volume of enemies thrown at you almost necessarily results in repetitive gameplay. Thus the only reliable way to make the game stand out is to introduce fun innovative mechanics. Most developers aren't capable of this, so they turn to various gimmicks that are hit and miss. Even really cool things like "big set piece moments", hyper-immersive first person perspective, co-op play, or giant bosses are all kind of gimmicky.

You really can't just inject story into this kind of game and expect it to work, because mowing down thousands of identical enemies is rarely a scene you'll find in a good film or novel. It simply isn't interesting. Even in massive battles, action needs to be broken down to the human level, and made intelligible to the reader.

I think good story-driven gameplay has to have three key elements in addition to the obligatory storyline and game mechanics: 1) interesting characters 2) unique encounters 3) a sense of progress. Action games usually fail to deliver on all 3 counts. The characters are rarely interesting. Aside from bosses, the encounters are rote repetition. Rote repetition is fine if you are a Battlefield, Modern Warfare, Diablo, etc and your mechanics are so good they support that, but if your game is anything less than these masterpieces it doesn't really work. Players will eventually get tired of playing the same 2nd-rate game over and over. Action games do a better job of giving you a sense of progress, and this is often the main element they rely on to keep the player engaged. Acquiring better weapons or powers, seeing newer and cooler environments and enemies, etc.

The main thing I think is missing from most action games today is unique encounters. In the ideal game, the player would never face the same challenge twice. This is part of the secret sauce behind what made old school point and click adventures and RPGs like Baldur's Gate so great. Every area has unique challenges and there is very little repetition. The lack of creativity in many games today is really depressing considering how many millions of dollars go into each one.

I think it's very interesting the Sony bought Gaikai. I don't think cloud gaming is the answer for next gen right now, but I do think it's the thing that could save gaming in the future. Just imagine being able to play the most state of the art games available on your tv, computer, or mobile platform just by going online and signing into your PSN account!

Imagine not having to upgrade your console to play PS5 games, but getting benefits through upgrading. Sony could get the cost down on new systems to a relatively nominal fee and give you access to their beefy back catalog.

I do see a number of issues for the service, like lag and less quality graphics when streaming, but I think most people would make that concession to be able to get in on a console experience they may not have otherwise.

All of a sudden, the PSN Plus service is starting to make sense to me. Wish I had jumped on when they were giving away that whole library.

Jeff don't expect too much from the "last of Us" remember at some point fungal zombie people are going to show up. It's a survival horror game!!!

hawken is unreal not cryengine.

My problem with a Final Fantasy VII remake is the question of HOW they would do it. To me it sounds like something that would inevitably piss off some part of the fanbase.

Do you keep the same battle system? Do you keep the pre-rendered backgrounds or go with a full 3rd person camera? How do you do the world map? Voice acting? Do you try to make it into something more modern or do you essentially try to make a 90's era JRPG with today's graphics?

Nevermind how long it would probably take today's Square Enix to actually make that game. Look at how long FFXIII took and how long Versus XIII is taking. They had to outsource part of XIII-2 to Try-Ace.

Just played Journey for the first time. I was fortunate enough to have played the entire game in one sitting, with one person, who hadn't played it before either.

I loved it.

I found the minimalistic visuals and music absolutely perfect, and the way the world communicates its rules I found to be really well implemented and natural. The joy I got from the slalom-style sequences and the tension I felt when you first encounter the "baddies" was incredible; easily one of my favourite games in many years.

And, I'm not ashamed to say, I was moved to tears at the end :)

I just have to ask what's the big concern about episodic content?

The essence of it seems to be just taking a full retail game like say Halo or CoD, and then just chopping up the chapters and selling you them one at a time, right? So in the end your still just getting the shipped retail game just not all at once. So why is this being viewed as game changing, it's going to be the same product at the end of the day, right?

I'm being sincere here I really would like to know what the deal is.

I see on the show they talked a little bit about how mobile could end up being the more profitable bedrock on top of which more expensive games are built, and I'm not sure I agree with that. If you look at the numbers, right now the real money is still in retail console games. That might be shifting over the next few years, but right now mobile is still a ways off from overtaking console in terms of money. Popularity and growth yes, but not money. Not yet.

I don't have the sources on me right now, but the vast majority of iOS apps don't really make money at all. On the show they already noted how the store is pretty stacked in favor of a few ultra-successful games, and even those are only about as successful as middle-of-the-road console games. The comparison to Nintendo is especially jarring.

I think the entire Angry Birds franchise last year brought in less revenue than a single Mario game. Nintendo also still brings in more revenue in a year than the entire App Store has since its creation. Sure that brings up complications between Nintendo's hardware business, software business, and Apple's hardware business. I'm just trying to show that a platform's popularity in no way correlates to how successful it is financially.

In light of this, as for Nintendo's handheld business, we'll see come August. If they can return the 3DS to profitability and if people flock to NSMB2 like they did the last two games, then they would be insane to dump their handheld business.

I found the discussion about why developers use Unreal and the bigger discussion about big budget gaming light years more interesting than the violence talk or even the Spec Ops discussion. We have had the discussion about violence over and over again.

Talking about the business aspects of why games get made is a unique one.

Just a small correction, Hawken is running on Unreal, not the CryEngine.

http://www.unrealengine.com/en/showcase/udk/hawken/

Firstly, and most importantly, that was a great episode. It was clear that you were enjoying it, and realised how good it was as you were doing it (not just because Supermegaworm made an appearance). That was everything a good round table podcast should be - a group of intelligent, articulate people talking about a subject they love with passion. I'd have Sessler on more often, but I imagine he's a bit divisive!

One comment though, the section on Episodic Gaming was decent, but had me shouting at the radio (well, at the mp3 player in my running shorts). I'd argue that Walking Dead is pretty much everything you're asking for isn't it? OK, Episode 2 was a bit delayed, but we have cheap, frequently released content with an overarching story, based on a known IP but not reusing the same characters/settings as other mediums and a mature story that's thoughtful and creative.

Most importantly it DOES answer the big question about episodic content - how do you incentivise people to come back? Well, Walking Dead does absolutely the right thing - it's not a long game chopped into bits, it's a series of mini stories with a plot arc overlaid across the top. This allows the game to bookend each episode and make them partially self contained - it lets you know what's coming and what's been before - and this builds engagement and excitement.

Each episode is also a reasonable length, just 2 or 3 hours long. But most importantly there is a point to me playing through it because the story is dynamic. I want to play through it because I've made moral choices that I know will affect the story not one episode down the line but three or four. Episodic gaming so often doesn't work because I'm being asked to buy 2 or 3 hours more of a 10-15 hour game I enjoyed. I'm being asked to buy game mechanics. This is fine, but as you pointed out, so few people actually finish retail games that most people (80%) are probably satisfied with the content they already have and don't want more of it. Walking Dead solves this. Make the episodes short, make the player engaged in the arc because they're affecting it and make the game something different to the 150,000 identikit shooters that are out there. Big props to Telltale - I don't think this should be lumped in with their other output, which has felt, at times, rather lumpy and uninspiring.

I also think Walking Dead, like Journey and Heavy Rain are the first wave of something new, something different for videogaming. I think they're edging closer to what Spec Ops wanted to be, which is using videogames to be an interactive storytelling medium, or a thought provoking one, not just finger and eye exercise.

A couple corrections:

Naughty Dog has revealed what their mutated will look like. They did this with the debut trailer. "The mutated" are inspired by a real life fungus that uses insect bodies as its host, and grows out of their brains.

They revealed this using a teaser vid pulled from some nature documentry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt7Z1rb8ung&noredirect=1

And then they actually just showed what "the mutated" look like:
http://cloud.videogamewriters.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/the-last-of-us-20120323040220032.jpeg
http://cdn.gamerant.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Last-of-Us-Joel.jpg

Second, the term "episodic" technically means self contained. Where as serial means a continuous story broken up into parts. People sometimes use them interchangeably, but yeah.

Also, Adam can take his critique of the "who are the real monsters?" question which is in all good zombie fiction and shove it up his ass. The Walking Dead has kept the question relevant for years now, over dozens of issues. 28 Days Later is one of the best horror films ever made. Almost all good horror concerns itself with questions of humans themselves becoming monstrous. So yeah, that's stupid, and a sign of him being pretentious.

I found Jeff's comment about games surpassing other story telling mediums funny. Other than my feelings on games not being good story telling device, because they are games first and foremost(I do enjoy games stories though). Someone watches a movie what do they say if they read the book, well it was good but the book was better. Someone plays a game of a movie and they say the movie was better.

So book>movie>game what cataclysmic event can change that? Movies haven't surpassed books and they've had 100 years or so to try, and they aren't getting any closer. So what gives the belief this will ever change?

Lol there are no "B" titles anymore. What a joke in a episode where Spec Ops, and prototype are discussed, the press acts blind at times. There's about 10 AAA titles a year, then a bunch of middleware games, like say Dark Souls great game not AAA though.

Damn, sounds like an amazing episode this week. Can't wait to listen during my afternoon work-out. I'm sure I'll have plenty to add about both Spec Ops: The Line and Halo 4.

RIP Radical. I have quite a few friends who were working there. :(

The smartass in me is thinking, I don't know who to feel worse for. The guys who lost their jobs, or the guys who are damned to to a lifetime of making COD map packs.

But the answer is obvious. I hope everybody who suffers from the fallout of this closure finds work quickly in the surging social games and mobile games development scene here in Van.

Info to support my brother's ride for Children's Hospital and fire relief efforts in Colorado

Thank you so much to those who helped Andrew get off 0. He's got $130 pledged toward his $1000 goal and it's likely all from you. Really appreciate the support.

For anyone else who might be able, his ride is in three weeks or so, and here's where you can donate: http://www.couragetours.com/siteapps/personalpage/ShowPage.aspx?c=8gLLK3MHLhIYF&b=7741039&sid=ddJMJPMsFdIDLKPoGnE

He's riding in the Courage Classic to support Children's Hospital of Colorado.

It's already a bad wildfire season in the Southwestern US. Along with my brother, my mom lives near Colorado Springs where the Waldo Canyon fire has gained national attention. The Red Cross takes the lead in relief efforts and operates shelters for those displaced by evacuations. With a number of fires already burning it's sure to be a tough summer.

Contributions can be simply made at http://www.redcross.org/

And as Jeff mentioned, there's urgent need for blood as well. See http://www.redcrossblood.org/ for more on the situation and where you may be able to donate blood to help out.