Weekend Confirmed 128 - Guild Wars 2, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, Walking Dead

Is it possible to download these episodes? I only see the option to play it in the podtrac player the episodes used to play fine for me but as of today the player keeps crashing on me.

I just wanted to give a quick shout-out to "Indy" Jeff - thanks tons for all the iOS game suggestions over the episodes! Countless hours of entertainment have been gained thanks to your recommendations. =)

Guild Wars 2

Jeff Cannata, usually your opinions and my opinions line up almost perfectly. In this instance, however, I disagree with pretty much everything you said. This game is such a generic MMORPG. My friend last night told me GW2 is just a WoW clone and I couldn't really come up with a good argument against that. The biggest difference is the dodge button, and that you have 15 skills instead of 87,000,000.

Clear up some misinformation: Combos are triggered by a combo field + finisher attack. Eg: Ele lays down a fire spell and a ranger shoots an arrow through it = fire arrows. Garnett, your explanation of this was confusing and as best I could tell totally wrong. When you accidentally trigger your first combo it will give a popup explaining it, but you're right that this isn't explained well at all. Honestly this won't really come into play until high-end PvP or high-end dungeons because a lot of these combo effects seem to be really subtle in the context of blowing away trash mobs in open world PvE.

About learning the game, I had no problem learning the basic mechanics. You equip a weapon, and then press buttons to use skills. Then you can read the skill descriptions to optimize how you use each skill. What part of that is difficult or different? You mentioned unlocking skills, but I saw this happening in the tutorial level and had it figured out immediately.

So far the PvP is really a let-down to me. There is 1 PvP format, and 4 maps. GW1 launched with more PvP formats than GW2 has maps. Its fun, it's just that I'm not even to my deer rank yet and already the maps are getting old. For being a PvP game there is a serious lack of real PvP going on here (the WvW is an unbalanced gear-based PvP/PvE mix and really doesn't fill my desire for fun, formatted, balanced PvP - from what I've seen WvW is just a bunch of headless zergs running around).

And last but not least, the personal story is just totally random from what I can tell. I'm lvl 50 now, and the real game's story started at lvl 30. All that personal story crap was just a bunch of sidequests that affect nothing at all. It's like there is no story arc (or the story arc begins at lvl 30 and before that is just an excuse to give players xp rewards). I know you really enjoyed that Garnett, but as someone that enjoys following a compelling story I can say that I wasn't enjoying the story until I hit 30, and that none of the stuff I did in character creation affects anything about me (it doesn't affect any character skills like you said in the cast), the game's main story, or the world.

I probably sound like I'm not enjoying the game, even though I am. This game just really isn't any revolutionary take on MMORPGs to me. It seems like 90% standard fair.

WiiU announcement on the 13th it's so exciting. Hopefully the price, release date, and games available at launch get announced. Bring on Pikmin:) hello future of gaming you look good.

Halo please.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1rdfWjD5zU

To sum up the whole "subtle racism" thing, here's my final take.

Imagine if Assassin's Creed were a Japanese franchise, but was otherwise identical to how it is now. Literally the only difference being the country of origin.

Would the critical reception for this game be any different than western AC?

My take is that, yes, it probably would to a certain degree, but I don't believe that it would have made such a difference as to actually affect the game's reputation among gamers, nor do I think it would have exempted Revelations from the critics' general complaint that it came too soon after Brotherhood to have the impact it should have had.

Garnett and Jeff, did you guys realize you can use spaces in your GW2 character names? I was pretty bumed I couldn't get my usual character name, until I realized i just need to give her a last name. Unless you are naming your character after a specific historical or fictional character by adding a last name you can get whatever you want.

To your point Garnett it does seem weird that they haven't fixed this problem yet, but then has anyone? I know the last three MMOs I've tried out (SWTOR, Trek Online, and Secret World) it was the same thing. Seems like a common architecture problem then something that they can just innovate their way out of.

Guys..... Fall of Cybertron is AWESOME!!!!

I haven't played Darksiders 2 yet, but I feel a lot of the "Mashup of all your favorite games" description applies very well to FoC. It takes a bunch of elements from other great games and strings them together in a polished and entertaining way.

Every single level is filled with memorable set pieces. The action is relentless, but the nature of the action changes frequently enough to keep the game feeling fresh the entire time.

Oh, and the final level.....

*** Light Spoilers ***

Every mission of the game has you take control of a different character with their own unique sets of abilities. This really helps with the diversity of the combat and level design (since each level is designed specifically around the character it features).

But when you get to the final mission, its almost like they looked at the entire game up until that point, found every particularly cool moment, and created a "Greatist Hits" mission out of those elements. Yet it does this without ever feeling repetitive, because of the way these elements are layered together.

Really, I can't recommend this game enough, even if you are not a Transformers fan.

Garnett, I feel like your view on Guild Wars 2 holding your hand is a bit retarded for an MMO player. For one, it's pretty easy to know how/what you're supposed to be doing . NPC's and Help hints give you a lot of info regarding skills and character development. And a lot of it is just pretty easy to figure out by simply playing the game... I never had to consult a wiki or anything to figure out how to spend skill points!

But the other issue... you're freaking playing an MMO! With a map full of other players!!! When you have questions, all you have to do is type in the chat window. The community on GW2 has been extremely friendly and helpful... the game pretty much encourages this. I have never seen a question go unanswered in the chat window. The only thing I had to ask questions about was crafting and I certainly didn't find it frustrating to 'have to learn' crafting. Gamers already carry a stigma of being lazy some times... but being so impatient with a game that you get upset at not knowing everything about its mechanics within the first hour just seems like the pinnacle of laziness.

On the subject of NSMB2
post your best coin rush scores here:

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/8048/coinrush3.jpg

Granted, hitting the right combination of stages makes an obvious difference, and so does beating the main game, so feel free to qualify your scores with whatever additional factors that had an effect on it.

Metal Gear: Ground Zeroes

I cannot wait to see how this first step into the open-world stealth genre goes for Konami.

Personally, I'm kind of expecting them to run into the same development process as Ubisoft did with Assassin's Creed.

They'll get the foundation of the tech and the core elements of the gameplay down, but fail to build it out into a complete or smooth experience.

I mean, this is the series that made you press 3 different buttons just to shoot a dude in MGS2, then took you into menu hell for the core camoflage and sustenance mechanics in MGS3, before finally borrowing heavily from the context-sensitive commands seen in games like Gears to smooth out the experience in MGS4.

So unless they've completely overhauled their key design staff I think it's either going to be a polish, smoothed gameplay skeleton (a la AC) or a hugely ambitious, multifaceted experience that is super clunky to play.

Thoughts?

I just finished the Leviathan DLC for Mass Effect 3 - prepare for spoilers.

ChoasNova, in regards to our discussion last week I totally nailed the Reaper's motivation and purpose. They are simply farmers who's goal is to protect all life by harvesting it every season. They reap and sow and grow and repeat. Just like I said last week, it's not a war, just a harvest. Their harvest is the solution to the endless wars that occur when races become over ripened and overgrown. To a blade of grass it might seem brutal and vicious but to the farmer it's not personal and while it might hurt for a second, it's for the best in the long run.

And like you wanted, there's complete insight to why they were created and who created them.

Loved it.

Where is the line between "detailed" and "convoluted"?

Everyone blasts simple stories because they're too shallow to take seriously, but when a series tries to build lore, everyone says it's "up its own ass" or becoming a convoluted storyline.

What are games you feel "deserve" their lore? I'd say Mass Effect is one. I don't think "convoluted" when I think of the series as a whole. Gears of War? Halo? Sure, maybe those are a bit ridiculous.

I don't know why this is but every time I hear you discuss MMOs I want to punch something.

Perhaps it's because you frequently get the mechanics of the games you're talking about just... wrong.

Mostly, I think it's because you maybe shouldn't be playing MMOs cause you don't seem to enjoy them.

Here's the reason MMOs don't explain every single detail of the game to you, they don't have to. Part of playing the game is learning how to play from the other players. If you're not learning from reading chat and asking questions and, yes, reading the wiki or even the manual then you're doing it wrong. You're cutting out a major portion of the game which is the other people running around you.

It's an MMO. It IS a social game. And if you think reading the wiki isn't social, who do you think wrote that wiki?

Not taking advantage of those other players is like... playing a console game with only one side of the controller. If we're going to make ridiculous analogies.

Oh and if you're worried that the game may be too daunting for the common mortal think of this, there's no manual or on screen instruction for the iPhone either but Apple seems to do fairly well selling and supporting those.

We live in the age of "figure it out or ask". Maybe that'll just have to be a problem for you.

I hope Jeff Cannata see's this.

Jeff, I'm from England and I have no idea who Phil Simms is (since learned he is a commentator), but I was laughing so much at your impression of him, it was hilarious.

I was going to post this last week but I forgot.

PS - It is always good to hear a fellow Brit on the show.

Garnett can I suggest a new segment? It doesn't have to be every show but maybe once a month or something.

I'd really love to hear you guys talk about older games every now and then. It doesn't really matter how old just something one of you has recently gone back to. I really love going back playing games that I missed. For instance I started playing Vanquish because you were all talking about it a couple of weeks ago. I had purposely skipped that game because I didn't think it looked all that good, boy was I wrong. I'm loving it. I would have never gone back to play it had it not been for you guys (well you and Giant Bomb they had also talked about it around that same time).

I know this is kind of similar to CannataFord but you can make it different by it just being about one game. And talking about it like it was just released yesterday.

Bastion on iPad controls pretty darn well... So long as you stick to attack and roll:)

I think the developer was wrong to label it subtle racism. I do believe he correctly identified the built in bias from the reviewing base of "journalist". I would guess most game reviewers either came up during the Nintendo/Sega generation or they are younger and grew up with the Gameboy/PS1 generation. They grew up with a base of playing Japanese game so they have a certain affinity to those games despite their wacky stories.

I think you will see a shift in the next five or six years as a younger generation or reviewers who are growing up with the 360/PC/Mobile phone era. The kid who might have grown up with Mario may be playing Braid, Super Meatboy, or Plosion Man.

On the possibility of a second Fantasy league.

The way it works out I think the best alternative will be to have both leagues draft at the same time (I hope NFL.com supports that). Or maybe staggered by half an hour or something. So if you wanted in the second league, be ready to draft this Sunday aft/eve.

In terms with the annualized cycle it seems to me that the ideal way to make Madden, and in turn all of these sports games would benefit by using the model that Activision uses for Call of Duty. That in turn would allow for these games to receive the time they need to need to be the best that they can be, and allow for people like me who want to get into these games but find the systems near impossible to get into.

In regards to Guild Wars 2 and targeting...It works perfectly fine for me. The TAB button will select the target in front of you and cycle through the nearby enemies just as in other MMO's.

I share Jeff's enthusiasm with GW2, and I would even have to disagree with him on the combat in GW2, i love it. As someone who plays just about every MMO at some point of another, I think GW2 has a perfect blend of action combat while still maintaining a turn-based aspect. I'm really digging the Engineer class in this game, using mostly rifles instead of pistols though.

Ubisoft's Subtle Racism Thing:

With some of games that you guys described on the show I think the main difference is in how seriously the stories in different games take themselves.

Gears of War is seen as a generic sci-fi action storyline, but plays itself totally straight, and expects you to take it seriously. Bayonetta does not for a second want you to take its storyline seriously - the game KNOWS how silly it is and thus plays everything with tongue firmly in cheek. I personally feel that Japanese games do this more often. Actually, Bulletstorm is a perfect example of the western equivalent (partly because its script was written in English by people from Poland).

On the other hand, Japanese games actually get called out pretty commonly for their storylines. JRPGs are regularly criticized for their common shonen tropes, melodramatic bishonen characters, or what have you. Just look at the reception to FFXIII for a recent example, not to mention FFXIII-2.

I'd just like to say I have Korean internet and it is AWESOME.

We have almost all probably been incensed by something one of the big publishers have done lately. Whether it's screwing the developers they hire, or the gamers that buy their product, publishers seem to have no shame when it comes to screwing people. But what is the best response to these actions? Are gamers best writing publishers to express their concerns? How about boycotting their products? Maybe even starting an online petition.... because those work SO WELL!

I think the answer is probably gamers buying stock in the important companies in the gaming world and being active shareholders who attend meetings and express their concerns. I have a feeling that's the only way a guy like Bobby Kotick is ever going to think twice about how his and his company's actions reflect on them.

I've almost come close to totally swearing off Activision games before, but they own and contract too many good developers who I want to support.

What do you guys think is the best solution to make the business side of gaming represent the industry better?

So I'll preface this post with a couple warnings. First warning, the first part of this post will spoil Walking Dead Episode 3. Second warning, I think this is going to come off way more negative than I feel. I like the game, but am having some major issues as time goes on. Ok, spoilers from here until I close the warning.

Ok, Telltale really blew the whole "story decisions matter" with Episode 3. They officially need to stop telling me at the beginning of an episode that my decisions matter, when clearly they don't. In Episode 2, they pretty much wrote off the major character death choice of episode 1 by sidelining the other character. This episode, they freaking kill off that character. It feels super cheap and mechanical. Episode 2's major choice of Kenny vs Lily is also completely written around this episode as well. No matter what choice you made, Lily is going to end up leaving or dead. That choice no longer matters. Seriously, they've funneled these decisions way more down than they need to. Especially with that warning in front of each episodes, it makes it feel even more mechanical and off-putting. Does that moment when the episode 1 character dies work on an emotional level? Sure, but that doesn't change the fact the decision was clearly made to funnel people's choices to where they want them to be for Episode 4. I've been seriously taken out of the game now. I no longer feel like there's a reason to care about the choices. I still love the narrative and game, but the major draw has completely been blown out the window. The only thing Telltale has done with the choices is make the characters react differently to me depending on what I've done. I give Telltale credit for that. It's neat. The problem comes when those characters will probably be dead next episode anyway. Why should I care what they think?

Ok, spoilers done.

Like I said, I like the game a lot. I just hope Telltale can restore my faith in their writing in future episodes.

Hm, I sense a Del Rio Transformers remix next week.

NOT AGAIN !

Garnett, can't you just let the people gives their impression without derailling the podcast all the time ?

I was so excited to hear Jeff impression on Guild Wars 2, but you had - once more - to jump there and to derail the disussion.

That's really sad...

Review Scores. The argument some of you were making that you can get away from the "one score"mentality is simply false. I actually work in testing and evaluation and this attitude comes up a lot. People everywhere find the idea of reducing something down to a single number very distasteful. However, a little thought will show why there is no escaping it, it is a natural phenomenon.

You can't play two games at once. When you make the choice to pop in game A over game B, or even to play game A instead of watch TV show B, in that instant you have essentially "scored" A higher than B. No matter how many desperate factors went into that decision, you simply cannot decide between A over B unless you boil all those factors down to a single comparison A>B. There are an infinity of factors going into every decision. Your mind somehow weights each one and adds them up, otherwise you can't make a decision. The same goes for buying a game, buying a car, choosing to date someone, choosing to hire someone, anything.

So this is why you always see ratings and rankings, and then people trying to aggregate and average these down to even fewer numbers. The number is just a proxy for a global subjective evaluation that takes EVERYTHING into account. I think maybe what you guys are saying is you would like the reader to go to the effort of reading the detailed review and coming to their own decision, but frankly this doesn't work very often. No review ever described even 50% of what a game contains. Instead they pick and choose a few pluses and minuses to mention. Its next to impossible to give a truly global summary of a game. Often you get vague statements about the positives, and then a lot of detail on the negatives, so you come away with a negative impression even if the reviewer loved the game! Alternatively, you might come away thinking a game is great based on a few statements, when in fact the sum product is pretty meh. . Only the review score captures their entire impression of the game and their own weighting of each aspect.

Avoiding the summary score can actually be very misleading to your audience. This happened to me with Tera, I went out and bought it based on a few statements you guys said about how fun the combat was, only to drop it after about a week. Let me tell you, it's metacritic of 77, which I only looked at after buying the game, is much more accurate information. Guild Wars 2, currently sitting at a 94, has all the same positives Tera had (great combat system and graphics) plus a million more. The 94 vs. 77 tells you something different (and frankly something more important) than a verbal list of pros and cons about each game.

As came up repeatedly on this episode, there are simply WAY too many games to play. When you start bringing in Iphone games and indie games, the number gets truly mind boggling. If we went out and bought every one of these that sounded like it might be fun, we would never have time to play 80% of them, much less go back and play a gem we missed like Lost Odyssey.

I know its a painful job, but as a reviewer I see your #1 job as just making sure I'm aware of those masterpiece 5 star can't miss games (like Uncharted 2) that I need to make sure I play. That does mean giving out a lot of lower scores to "good" games. I don't need a reviewer's help to find "good" games because I already have stacks of good unplayed games lying around.

I don't really see what the problem with the IGN article was. I felt like it was one guy, reaching a realization about himself and putting it out there for other people to think about, just in case they play games for a similar reason.

I can personally say that I definitely look at games as an escape sometimes. Whether it's getting your mind off that girl you just fell out with so you're not tempted to call her, or getting your mind off work for awhile, or just enjoying some catharsis after a rough day.

Obviously balance is important though. Physical activity is effective for catharsis, friends are great for getting over bad days (or bad girlfriends), and doing something productive or creative can make up for a long grind at work. I'd recommend finding escape through any and all of those.

But games are definitely an escape, whether you're depressed (clinically speaking) or not.