Weekend Confirmed 125 - Bioshock Infinite, PixelJunk 4am, Skyrim: Dawnguard

Here's hoping you guys talk about Dust: An Elysian Tail. I haven't played it yet, but I plan to, it looks fun as hell.

Here's the thing, though. I'll be the first to admit that the whole "furry" thing baffles the hell out of me. I just don't get it. But at the same time, the complete and utter hatred of furries baffles me even more. Of all the things people could be into what seem strange to everyone else, is it really worth getting that bent out of shape over something so silly?

But back to the game. If Giant Bomb's quick look is anything to go by, the game looks very fun and accessible, with surprisingly good amateur voice acting, gorgeous animation, and perhaps most importantly, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING EVEN THE SLIGHTEST BIT SEXUAL.

Why is this game getting such a creeped-out reaction from so many people? Have we just become so paranoid of being attacked by furries or perceived as being sympathetic to their interests that we've lost any sense of perspective on things?

No Persona 4 Arena talk? I thought Garnett was big on fighters. And JRPGs.

Great article outlining the absolute stupidity of gaming culture right now. He called it 'girlfriend mode'? Oh noes!

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2012/08/14/opinion-borderlands-2-and-the-girlfriend-mode-farce

Sooooo.... Halo fans.

Thoughts on the day's announcements regarding class specialization and passive bonuses?

My take: In a perfect world, this wouldnt happen, but we live in a world where COD has lowered the bar for shooters everywhere, so of all the compromises, this seems like the least of a kick in the balls.

So... on the next episode do you guys have any plans to discuss the upcoming PC port of Dark Souls and the problems being described in the post-NDA previous? It's becoming another one of those ports that's causing PC vs Console flame wars because the PC gamers aren't satisfied with the port, kind of like Modern Warfare 2.

If anyone reading this doesn't know, Dark Souls on PC will be locked to 30 frames per second and a rendering resolution of 1024 x 720. The locked fps isn't that surprising anymore but a locked rendering resolution is virtually unheard of on the PC. You can still DISPLAY the game at higher resolutions, but it'll just stretch the image into a blurry mess if you have a 1080p or 1440p monitor.

Those who were planning to double dip have lost all reason to buy this port, but do you think PC gamers who haven't played Dark Souls at all should still get this?

Garnett, have you tried Datura on PSN yet? It's by Plastic, the guys who did "Linger in Shadows" and it's a really different kind of experience! It's only a couple hours long and there's not a lot of replay value, but it makes great use of Move with the direct hand-control interface and the selection of weird short experiences you get pulled into. Like a lot of reviews say, it's really annoying to control at first, but it's actually not that bad once you get the hang of it - mainly, to turn, just tilt the controller instead of twisting it. Also a warning, you have to play most of it with the controller at your shoulder, like a torch or something. Still, for anyone who's really into "art games" and novel nontraditional experiences I'd highly recommend it.

Now what I don't get is why Microsoft seems to be the only publisher that gets making a Metroid clone with great high end graphics is a really big market? I mean for real guys.

Really enjoyed Nikole's contribution to the show! Hope she returns!

Any chance Jeff could get an Android tablet, non Apple household here. Oh yeah, Steam on Linux.WTF?

A question came to mind when Garnett was talking about that bounty hunter game: are there any good flight sims any more, specifically space sims. Two of my favorite games of all time were the original 'Wing Commander Privateer' and 'Freelancer'. Are there any out there that I should be playing?

On the topic of "have you been mean" online before - of fucking course, though not recently. Not in the sense of being racist, homophobic, or sexist, but just general, cruel trash talk. Not just spouting off in the lobby for no reason.

The first year or two I was playing on XBL, games like Halo 2 (I was about 15 or 16 at the time) would make me rage so hard when someone would spam a certain weapon or just dominate with cheap tactics. I would just send intelligence-insulting messages (both in content and in my language used :P) and otherwise dickish things. Sometimes they would flare right back, sometimes not.

Thing is, Nikole is right. An hour or so down the road, I would just want to slap the shit out of myself and felt generally terrible. This was just a game! Why was I getting so worked up about it that I would actually insult another human being? It's really awkward, and seems absurd, to apologize in a private message, but I did it anyways. I couldn't rest until I did, even though in all likelihood, I'd never play with this person again, much less talk to them. That's just me. I felt even worse because most of the time, the guy on the other end was understanding and would often say things like "Dude, I get really pissed too sometimes in this game, don't think anything of it."

It's kind of embarrassing to talk about, just because I was such a fucking idiot. Not sure how or when I grew out of it, but by the time I started playing Halo 3, I didn't get mad often, even though I was in the game, and even when I did, I wouldn't let it get to me.

Hell, nowadays when someone totally destroys me, I often send a friendly message about how well they did. Half the time they say "Thanks, you played good too!", and the other half, I get a "That's right, you're garbage!" response, which just makes me laugh now.

I know all this seems silly in the context of "it's just a game!" but if I could write off every flash of anger in a multiplayer match as "it's just a game!" (now or back then), it really wouldn't be much of a serious hobby, would it? I most likely wouldn't even be on this board right now if everything was "just a game".

I do like to take some pride in the sense that even as an idiot teenager, I didn't let anonymity or the knowledge I'd never need to reconcile with this person prevent me from remembering some manners. I'm sure plenty of other people out there do too. The opposite of this has happened to me, after all.

I'm interested to find out if any of the rest of you guys (especially my fellow Halo players here!) have anything similar to share.

Darksiders 2.

Amazing.

Discuss.

Unfortunately there is no solution to the trash being talked on the Internet. That kind of talk follows highly contested events(examples Dota, LoL, halo, CoD). If it gets removed there would be a down slide in the sales of said game as the competitive players moved to a more verbal game(example more community activity happens around say Halo, then say Mario kart which doesn't allow players to talk to one another).

Short answer for a solution is to beat the people talking smack that the only thing that will shut them up.

First, I'd like to say I enjoyed the show. It was refreshing that it didn't really follow the usual structure. I especially enjoyed the segment about the problems with online douchebags. Garnett props to you for allowing the discussion to take place naturally and allow the segment to go over. Thank you for that.

I really liked the idea of pooling like players together. If you're an ass online you'll play with other asses (that sounds bad lol). There could be a system in place where people can flag other's they deem disruptive. After you've been flagged so many times you get dropped down to the cesspool. Maybe you'd be allowed back to the normal population after a week or two. Chronic abusers would be permanently forced to play in the pool.

On the other side I LOVE the idea of being rewarded for positive behavior. I'm not exactly sure how you'd implement this though. Also what behaviors would be rewarded? What would the rewards be? Just quickly spit balling here. I think maybe every game could have a newcomer game mode. Experienced players would be rewarded (maybe with avatar items or item unlocks in the game?) for teaching newcomers the ropes. That's putting the a lot of extra work onto developers though.

The only other solution I can think of would be to punish abusers in-game. If you're flagged too often your rate of fire goes down, your health depletes faster, you do less damage.

It's not supposed to be 'Hong Kong', it should be Pyongyang. Think about it. What landscape have we as gamers not really covered? Think of the many sort of situations that could come into place. Pfft, Hong Kong, really?

Regarding Xbox Not-So-Live...

In episode 3 of Prove Your Point, my debate podcast, I posited that MIcrosoft is responsible for the hateful behavior on Xbox Live. It is primarily because Microsoft requires every Xbox LIve (XBL) user to sign terms and conditions of service. We pay for the capability to access Voice chat on Xbox Live and we must abide by MIcrosoft's terms. Legally, freedom of speech is still maintained because opting-in to this service means gamers agree to be civil. The unused gamer zones on gamertags could be used to filter users by strength/freedom of language to offer a viable alternative to those who want to be immature, petty, and hateful. Have a putrid party.

I further propositioned that Microsoft, a software company, can implement monitoring software over Xbox Live to curb strong language or hate speech. Again, opting-in to this feature is key because Xbox doesn't require you to use voice chat. You can curse, just not over XBL. I think software-centric censorship is the way to go. However, like Nicole, I just party up with my friends to avoid Xbox Live randomness anyway.

As an African-American, it is nigh impossible to have a great random experience on XBL. I appreciate her situation and thank you for reading. Stay Open!

So, I realize you guys are enthusiasts too, but it was kind of weird the level of Bioshock Infinite cheerleading going on. Also, being told that its none of our business why they are having major shakeups in addition to delays is questionable. If I am being asked to put forth $60 of my own money you better believe I am going to do my research first and I'd hope people I look to for reviews don't give companies a free pass.

Yay Nikole! I hope she becomes a regular on the show.

Bruce Campbell wasn't in Mace Griffin. He was the star of Tachyon: the Fringe!

You know if you are going to talk about the online experience and how you want less hate speech. You really need to begin to talk about Nintendo online and how you do, don't feel it's a good service. That is the service that actively dissuade and fights against such actions, and we see how limited it makes our experience.

You really need to start to question whether you want your cake, or you want to eat said cake.

Router suggestions for Garnett?

Cisco Linksys E4200 or Apple Airport Extreme, both very easy to manage (UI-wise) and have excellent throughput. Excellent throughput for both local network and toward Internet.

I currently have an Cisco Linksys E4200 with a Netgear WN2000RPT wireless--to-wired bridge for some non-wireless stuff. Stable and smooth. I get 50-60 Mbps on my MacBook from downstairs, even though it's behind reinforced concrete walls and floors. Highly recommended.

But that's just my experience.

Check out this website for good advice: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/

Like anything important and somewhat complex, you really have to read up on it and pick the right one for your environment.

Community Policing only works in MMOs because Social aspects can directly negatively affect play experience.

If you get a bad rep on a server in an MMO, you will have a hard time accessing group oriented content or forming relationships with people. (This tends to happen more because of Ninja'ing gear or greifing than language but it happens to.)

However in say CoD if you get 'blacklisted' by the made up community police it doesn't stop you from being able to play the game, it just slightly changes who you'd be playing with so there is no incentive to curb some behaviors a bit.

Also forcing people to use Real-ID is another thing entirely when it comes to games in Settings that don't make sense with English or Earth Language names. Which for some people is a lot of the charm of the name they came up with because it is one that fits for those settings.

I have a language question.

Is language that is more attuned to you personally more offensive? If yes why?

Because I feel that language is wrapping paper for sentiment and if I feel like calling someone an asshole the specific word I use is usually determined by (Feeling X Emotion Level)

I guess I don't have a problem with it because I don't take any of it to heart or at face value, I am very thick skinned as such my language has also become more crass as a result but that is never in my head as disrespectful to the person on the other end because I don't connect those two things when I am playing a game. Plus in a lot of the games there isn't enough time to formulate thoughts before spurting whatever comes out first.

All stars delayed into November... Good that it's not going up against SXT, but really going into November geesh. Reason to work on the game yeah they're not going to save the game with a extra month of work.

With regards to kids behaving poorly towards women while gaming online, a comment was made that moms should know their sons' gamertags, be tracking their activity, and be looking occassionally on these types of sites that document poor behaviour to see if their child's gamertag has been reported. I think this premise is flawed because the conversation is limited to the mother. Sure, in many households the mom may be in a better position to observe the son's after-school activities, but it's the father who's typically the role model for their online/gaming activites and should be setting a good example of how to behave in online communities. As a father, it's just as much your responsibility, if not more so, to be demonstrating with your actions, as well as straight-up telling your child, that this sort of behaviour is completely unacceptable.

I was actually wondering is there any way that Garnett could get Larry Hryb (aka) Major Nelson
on the show to discuss the topic of harassment .

even if it were just a phone call or skype or whatever it would be a good way to get the ball rolling.

I mean this has to be something that the videogame community needs to push for until we get this solved. at least get thing ready for the next generation of consoles. because as gaming becomes more and more mainstream this issue could eventually come back to bite us in the butt.

Can we please stop the "anonymity is why people are douchebags on the internet" belief. It's just wrong. I thought we got past that.

How can you continue to believe that anonymity is why people are douchebags online and that people like to hide behind their username in the face of all the people who have said dumb shit on twitter and facebook(including some of your industry peers) attached to their name, and the thousands of people you have met at conventions like PAX who have no issue walking up to you and saying "Hi, My name is X, I'm X_Stoner420_X on your site".


You started really good when you said "It's not a gender thing, we're all just idiots to each other online. If it wasn't gender, they'd be insulting me some other way." but then you went off the tracks.

People do care about their online reputation. Buy/Sell/Trade threads exist on several message boards people seldom get straight up ripped off. Internet friends have a place in everyone's life that is important. It's not the same as a real life friend, but you still care about them, value their input, enjoy their company etc.

Garnett, you used to work for a site where everyone had their real name on their home page:

http://www.1up.com/do/my1Up?publicUserId=5633829

Most people had pictures of themselves as avatars as well.


Even the douchebags that end up getting banned for harassment go onto the Microsoft support forums begging to get their gamertag back because it's their online identity and they don't like the idea of losing it and having to start over again.

Okay, I have a question.

I have a tendency to attract* the female gamers on live. I guess because I have always been really careful to treat them with a level of respect I would as if I were standing next to them. I guess I basically strike the right balance of being defensive of them, and not giving them more attention than anyone else, so I'm not singling them out, positive or negative.

My question is, have you ever played with a person, of either gender, where you seem to have established them more report than you're comfortable with? I know that obviously this happens a lot with woman, but did you make their girlfriend mad? I have never made someone's husband or boyfriend mad, but I'm always worried when I start to get facebook messages and emails.

Knowing full well that I don't live near these people, and will never meet them, I still get worried when soemone gets more attached than I think a spouse would appreciate.

*Attract attention, and gain trust.

Lossing anonymity would make things more civil, but don't fool ourselves who's going to be responsible the first, second, and third time someone gets shot over a video game?

Really great discussion on toolsets and mods. I think Jeff M. was dead on in regard to playing puzzles vs creating them ala Portal. I think the broader answer may have to with engagement. This would have to occur on both ends, tools would have to be intuitive and the underlying mechanics would have to be solid. For example I had a lot of fun as a kid building Quake levels that looked like our school. There was fun for us to be had and the tools were ridiculously simple. I am not sure about timing as we see experiences like DAYZ pop up out the ground and I know there are a plethora of mod scenes dediicated to older games that offer opportunities for both creator and player engagement. All of this really makes me want Rockstar to open Red Dead to nodding. The world offers enough and j am sure someone would address the tank walk. To dream.

I thought the show was well done today and Nikole Zivalich was a breath of fresh air. I really enjoyed the talk about females who play games and what they sometimes have to deal with while playing online games. It makes me sad that female players like Nikole have to put up with ignorant comments and statements made by immature people who would not act the same if they were in the same room. So I thought I would post a positive female gamer online gaming experience that happened in DayZ. Pretty much the cutest person ever makes friends with a group of random guys, winning them over with being a great person.
Enjoy Making Friends
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbwPpsIbQx0&feature=player_embedded

What would be awesome is if the stuff being discussed herein re: victimization would inform the next Metroid game. Like, in a real way, with real in-game mechanics.

An implementation, Garnett. An. Don't mute.

My other question led me to thin about this:

I was thinking about last week's episode talking about how to do MMOs differently; I think a space sim MMO would be brilliant. I know EVE is kinda that, but I'm talking full-on, Wing Commander type space combat rather than the massively interactive spreadsheet that is EVE.

The game could have procedurally generated "go through this jumpgate and kill all the pirates'" missions that would be a cleverly disguised instance. It could have actual aim-based shooting so that player skill is more important than min-maxing. It could get away from standard classes by letting people outfit their craft however they wanted to based on their play style and ability. Plus, the EVE style economy could be worked in (though I'd recommend toning it down a bit to make it more accessible).

Seriously, every time I think about this game, I am amazed that it hasn't been made yet. I have it all planned out in my head if there is a game company out there who wants to hire me.


What do you all think? Would a space sim MMO work?

Konami is giving 1 free game for 360 owners for silent hill collection, a ridiculous selection of games like mgs collection and castlevania lord of shadows.

NDS:

BEYBLADE: METAL FUSION (Hudson)
BEYBLADE: METAL MASTERS (Hudson)
Deca Sports (Hudson)
Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's World Championship 2011 Over the Nexus
3DS:

Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3DS (PES 2011)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 3DS (PES 2012)
Frogger 3DS
Doctor Lautrec and the Forgotten Knights
Metal Gear Solid 3DS
Nikolis Pencil Puzzle
Deca Sports Freedom
Wii:

BEYBLADE: METAL FUSION (Hudson)
Castlevania Judgement
Dance Dance Revolution (2010)
Dance Dance Revolution II (2011)
Dance Dance Revolution II (2011) Bundle
Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 2
Deca Sports (Hudson)
Deca Sports 2 (Hudson)
Deca Sports 3 (Hudson)
Def Jam Rapstar
Dewy's Adventure
Fishing Master (Hudson)
Karaoke Revolution Glee
Karaoke Revolution Glee vol. 2
Karaoke Revolution Glee vol. 3
Marble Saga Kororinpa (Hudson)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PES 2008)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 (PES 2012)
Rooms: The Main Building (Hudson)
The Cages: Pro Style Batting Practice
Wing Island (Hudson)
Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's: Wheelie Breakers
PS2:

Contra: Shattered Soldier
Frogger: The Great Quest
Karaoke Revolution Party
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance
Metal Gear Solid Essential Collection
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
SLAI: Steel Lancer Arena International
Suikoden III
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Yu Gi Oh! Duelists of the Roses
PS3:

Birds of Steel
Blades of Time
Castlevania Lords of Shadow
Castlevania Lords of Shadow LE
Dance Dance Revolution (2010) Bundle
Hellboy The Science of Evil
Karaoke Revolution Bundle (2009) Bundle
Lucha Libre AAA Heroes Del Ring
Metal Gear Solid HD
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (MGS4)
Neverdead
Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (PES 2009)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 (PES 2011)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 (PES 2012)
Silent Hill HD
Silent Hill Downpour
PSP:

Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops Plus
Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker
Pro Evolution Soccer 2012
Rengoku
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force 5
XBOX 360:

Adrenalin Misfits
Birds of Steel
Blades of Time
Castlevania Lords of Shadow
Castlevania Lords of Shadow LE
Dance Masters (Kinect)
DDR Universe 3 bundle
DDR (2010) Bundle
Deca Sports Freedom (Kinect)
Jimmy Johnson
Karaoke Revolution (2009) Bundle
KR Glee vol. 3
Lucha Libre AAA Heroes Del Ring
Metal Gear Solid HD
Neverdead
Otomedius Excellent
Otomedius Excellent LE
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 (Latin America - 30101 )
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 (Canada/US)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 (Latin America - 30126)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 (Canada/US)
Rock Revolution
Rumble Roses
Silent Hill Downpour
XBOX:

AirForce Delta Storm
Bloody Roar Extreme
Castlevania:Curse of Darkness
DDR Ultramix
DDR Ultramix 2
DDR Ultramix 3 bundle
DDR Ultramix 4 bundle
ESPN International Sports 2002
Frogger Beyond
Karaoke Revolution Party Game
King Arthur
Konami Classics vol1
Konami Classics vol2
Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance
Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2
TMNT Nightmare
Whiteout
Winning Eleven 9
WTA Tour Tennis
Xiaolin Showdown

Please have N Zivalich back! Favorite guest in a long long time (since back to 1UP yours).

Please also support a new podcast for her where she describes the plots of videogames.

Garnett, Halo: Reach implemented something exactly like you were talking about. If you were muted enough times, you became auto-muted when you entered a public lobby. I was put into a ton of lobbies where the entire other team was muted, and I didn't remember ever seeing them before.

Problem is, I, probably more than half the time, mute the rest of the lobby if a game or playlist requires me to be in game chat. It's a small problem though, because you can just un-mute them from "auto-muted" status at any time.

I also don't really like the idea of "everybody out of the pool" solutions like Jeff mentioned. I've always hated it when mods or whoever else just try to be drama queens by punishing everyone, when there's clearly a way to only punish the individual causing the problem.

So, I have to admit a large part of why I haven't been here as much is because I spent all summer writing a 278 page novel! Life goal complete! I have people beta reading it now and will edit after I get their feedback. After that, time to search for an agent!

You can follow my progress at http://empirenevadathenovel.wordpress.com/

I think developers have to start creating a bridge between the conventional dlc model and free to play. What F2P does effectively is turn the game itself into a store front. So Bethesda isn't really going to attract a huge crowd with its Snow Elf fan fic because they have already hit their core audience so hard. But if say they make "Skyrim Light" which lets everyone with a PSN/XBLA account roam the lands of Skyrim for free---and pay for core missions and mini games individually---they could attract a whole new audience. Repackage wood chopping a microtransaction game called "Medieval Carpentry Fun Times!" and Bethesda could single handedly prop up a $100 billion sub sector completely reliant on Facebook Moms.

Ok, this is completely off topic for this episode, but I had a great time talking to you guys about ME3 Multiplayer last week and I want to keep going ;)

So here's a topic for this week:

What's your favorite character/build, and what is your favorite squad combination?

My 2 favorite characters right now are the N7 Shadow and the N7 Paladin.

N7 SHADOW: Its all about the sword.

I max out my melee damage (since melee points buff all sword attacks, including the "shadow strike" ability). Max out my Shadow Strike abililty for pure damage. Set Tactical cloak to buff power attacks (adding even more damage to the Shadow Strike), and also upgrade the cloak to allow you to use 1 ability while remaining cloaked. Whatever points I had left went into the electric shockwave.

For weapons, I go as light as possible. Fast power re-charge is key, and I'll make it through most games without firing a single shot anyway.

This is the single most fun/exciting build I've come up with in ME3. With this set up, the Shadow Strike move is absolutely leathal. When used on it's own (without cloaking first) it does enough damage to kill most grunt enemies in a single hit. It also recharges fast enough that you can fire the power again the moment the animation finishes. So when facing a group of weaker enemies, I'll litterally hop from one to the next using the Shadow Strike power. This took some practice, but once I got the hang of targeting enemies who weren't looking at me I can wipe out a small cluster in just a few seconds.

When targeting stronger enemies (rocket troopers, centurians, marauders) I'll cloak first, then use Shadow Strike. The power buff from the cloak will usually allow me to kill them with 1 hit, plus I remain cloaked for a few seconds after the attack, giving me time to run back to cover without being shot at :)

When fighting larger clusters, I take cover behind a wall and use the Shock Wave as a suppression attack while my teammates deal out weapon damage.


Next up, the N7 PALADIN: The best defense.... is mindless suicidal aggression.

For the Paladin, I focus on putting points into the Shield Melee and Energy Drain. I upgrade the Energy Drain to max out the amount of power it restores to your shields. I build my Frost attack to do big damage, and build my Flame attack to do extra damage to frozen targets. Then I charge screaming into enemy forces.... ok, not quite, but sort of.
If I'm facing small numbers of weeker enemies, I'll use Energy Drain to stun the enemy closest to me. Then I'll sprint in and smack them with my shield, killing them in a single hit. I'll then turn to the next closest enemy and Drain him (refilling my shields in the process) and sprint at him, then melee. As long as I'm not facing too many enemies, I can repeat this process infinitely. For weaponry, I carry the N7 Pirannah shotgun with accuracy and power bosters. This lets me do mega damage at close range if I go up agains something that doesn't die after the first melee.

When facing more powerful enemies, I'll use Energy Drain to remove shields, then Freeze followed by Flame to do massive damage :)

If I didn't put you all to sleep, I'd love to hear what characters you all use and how you spec them out :)