Weekend Confirmed 129 - Borderlands 2, Sleeping Dogs, FIFA 13

Yes if you don't know what's in the brief case in "pulp fiction" you only get half the story. Once you find out whats in the briefcase then everything comes together so much better:)

So, no separate Wii U tablet controllers? What. The. Fuck.

If someone's is defective or if it's accidentally broken, is Nintendo actually saying "Hey, go buy another $300 console"?

I can't decide whether to laugh or cry at their stupidity right now. -_-

I find it really interesting that everyone on the show seemed to agree on appreciating Metal Gear Solid 4's attempt to ground itself (and thus the series as a whole) in reality.

I think that using nano machines to retroactively account for all the supernatural shit that occurred in the previous games seemed like a nod to the Western audience. That's never really been what the series was about. I, for one, like a little bit of magic in my MGS. I think that makes it unique.

I know I'm often a negative nelly on the boards, but I'm posting to say I thought the post-Borderlands 2 segment of the show was the best and most genuinely interesting show you guys have done in ages. (No offense meant to the Jeffs). I think Andrew and Sessler together are a really good addition as they both made excellent points.

I had planned to crash on the way home from Seoul but ended up staying up and listening to the whole thing.

Good job this week.

Hey guys! Great discussion. Completely agree with whoever mentioned "playing the game wrong" about one of the MGS games. I liked MGS 2, and loved MGS 3, but you're always given all these awesome weapons, but dis-incentivized to use them. Whether you get a worse "rating" or something else, it always felt like the "right" way to do things was get as far as possible without killing anyone.

That's actually what made Splinter Cell: Conviction my favorite such stealth game. It's fast-paced, and you need to use every weapon and item at your disposal, but it's still very much a stealth game that you need to approach VERY carefully. They offset your weapons and abilities by making it extremely easy to die.

In the end, Conviction was a near-perfect balance between stealth, action, vulnerability, and empowerment that essentially made it the perfect "24" game. I hope that the next Splinter Cell game only improves from there.

Can Adam just join the show permanently? Please? I love that man. His comparison of interest only loans to MMOs blew my mind.

Do you guys ever checkout the Xbox Live Activity post by Major Nelson. Earlier this year 1 and 2 on Xbox Live traffic were MW3 and BO. However since Minecraft has come out it has been a solid #2 passing Black Ops.

You really don't think of Minecraft of being a multiplayer game but tons of people are playing it online and people are still buying it. For example CS:GO just came out and sold over 100k in a week but still comes in second to Minecraft.

Garnett, can I say that I love hearing you and the team talk about FIFA. I'm a UK resident who lives with an American student, I managed to get him to love football because of FIFA 10 (also 11 and 12), so I wondered if you guys had any affinity for any football teams?

If not, I suggest Tottenham, I've been a Spurs since I was 3 years old, despite my old man being an Arsenal fan. Tottenham are one of those teams who are incredibly talented, but also entirely frustrating, the sort of team who bring out the range of emotions of being a sports fan better than most others. It's definitely more fun than supporting a team who expect to win the league every year.

Lastly, how are Spurs rated compared to last year, having sold Modric and Van Der Vaart I imagine we're a little worse, which probably means I'm matched against easier teams online this year.

Jesal Rajdev

Gearbox has just come out with an online tool that lets you mess around with some of the skill tree stuff for Borderlands 2 before it comes out. Although I'm not overly interested in this particular game I find this idea really exciting. I think Saints Row did something similar. It's something I've wanted in gaming for a long time.

I'd love to see pre-release character creation tools for games. I think if these tools were available for download ahead of release publishers might even snag extra sales if a bored gamer tries it out and becomes attached to their new avatar. It would also be super handy if you're like me and spend WAY too much time fussing over every detail before you actually get into your game.

Thoughts?

Just to clarify what Kojima said at PAX, since wasn't really that ambiguous although perhaps hard to believe. The Fox Engine is designed to be scalable and multiplatform. They built it to work well for next gen consoles. And likewise, if you go back to earlier reports about it, Kojima discussed being able to port and optimize titles on the Vita.

That said, Kojima did say that MGS GZ as it was demoed, represents what we will see on current gen consoles. He referred to an example of the mirror in the jeep having some jagged shapes do to lower polygon count. But he insisted that the PS3 and 360 skus of the game will look like what we saw.

Also wanted to respond to the brief discussion about MGS plots.

I think its misguided to look for, and for Kojima to try to explain the series' supernatural elements. With MGS1 I think many of the characters were deliberately designed to be supernatural. I think the series has actually gotten worse as Kojima has tried to explain these aspects with pseudo science fiction, and even more so, try to retroactively reclaim early Metal Gear works as part of some cohesive timeline.

Sniper Wolf supposedly could hold one position for days at a time---no real human could actually do this. Vulcan Raven could apparently convene with nature---his body (including bones) were eaten by ravens after you beat him. Decoy Octopus literally transfuses the blood of people he disguises himself as, which isn't medically possible.

But the point isn't really how plausible it is. What Kojima was really doing was translating video game logic into a style of story telling. A "boss character" isn't something that could pass the scrutiny of strict realism. Take any real life skilled warrior, shoot them once, and they cease to be "a boss."

So I mean if you look at the way Vulcan Raven's body is completely consumed, its a poetic device, to say his spirit has joined nature and what not. Its not "absurdist" and its not like the game is really telling you, "ravens like to eat bones!"

Roger Ebert has talked in his reviews how like romantic comedies depend on a single grain of information being withheld from the two leads, which creates this spiraling drama. And that in the real world, such a misunderstanding would be logistically impossible.

Most audiences don't question that kind of implausibility though. The reason is mainly that they want to watch Kate Hudson dance around in Ugg boots or whatever.

So I mean, I think the lesson as applies to Metal Gear though, is that just because it couldn't happen in the real world, doesn't defeat its purpose as a piece of fiction. It is deliberate. It is designed to entertain you, and use *yes* a contrived formula, as a vehicle for other ideas.

I see a big flaw Sessler's logic that "casual" games can't maintain a player base because "casual gamers" have no dedication to gaming as a hobby. Ummmm.... excuse me, there's plenty of "hardcore" gamers who only pick up the new Call of Duty or Madden every year. They might be fueling the insane sales for those few games but they're anything but "in it for the hobby".

How about we drop these dumb as fuck labels, ok? Just because the word "casual" was attached to a perceived genre of game or kind of gamer doesn't mean it was an accurate way to describe it/them in the first place.

Okay, so I'm a big geek for correcting this, but... I am what I am.

First of all, I do not blame any of you for your misunderstandings regarding the importance of knowing your blood types. I have been running into this frequently. Many places give you the impression that knowing your blood type might be important if you are in an emergency situation. Just this summer, my wife and I were asked to provide blood types for our children for camp.

The fact is, you or your family members will NEVER be asked for your blood type in an emergency or in any other situation in which you might need blood. That is not the way the medical system works. If you need blood and there is time, you will have a 'type and screen' or a 'type and cross' done which will check your blood type and only when that is documented in the blood bank will blood be dispensed for use. Essentially, this is done every time someone needs blood...

Except, of course, in an emergency where there is not enough time to type your blood. In this case, again you or your family members will NOT be asked for your blood type. You will be given O negative blood which is suitable for you without regard to your blood type as O and negative refer to the absence of specific antigens on the surface of the blood cells. This is why people with O negative blood are specifically encouraged to donate blood. Their blood can be used for anyone.

Anyway, I don't mean to be obnoxious, but I just wanted to reassure you that not knowing your blood type is okay. Don't sweat it!

And if you ever need a medical consultant for the show (unlikely)... just let me know.

So, I've recently found out Pax is comig to Australia. I can't tell you how pumped I am. I'm just waiting for them to announce a venue so I can book flights.

So, all you convention veterans, shower me with advice. Teach me te ways of
conventioning

Regarding the NPD survey, my two concerns are such:

1) For all intents and purposes, the NPD is looking at buying habits as opposed to playing habits.

I don't know the specifics of their survey, but I would argue that you have the equivalent of the "whale" in the retail space. This whale is the early adopter of all new hardware and buys all the hyped up AAA games. Most people are likely picking and choosing which games and consoles they buy, and sticking with those decisions, and when it comes time to tighten their belts, they still play games, they just don't buy new ones as often. Given the price of your average freshly released AAA title at retail, it doesn't take a lot of these whales to make a dent in the sales charts.

I know plenty of casual gamers who play games All The Damn Time, the only difference is that they're not constantly buying new games, they found what they liked and they stick with it, and for that reason they're not showing up on the NPD's radar.

It's worth remembering, realizing that not buying is not the same as not playing games is what allowed Nintendo to fill a vacuum and dominate the market after the western games industry completely jumped ship.

2) How people use this information worries me greatly.

So you now have a particular subset of core gamers being explicitly told that they're the primary revenue source for the industry. This particular group is already very vocal about what they like and dislike from their games. If the industry takes to heart that these people are the ones to be strip-mined, changing the ending to Mass Effect is only the beginning.

Just look at the situation in Japan right now, where a particular subset of creepy okatu is all but guaranteed to spend absurd amounts of money on a particular subset of creepy moe games and merchandise, and entire companies like Idea Factory just cranking out one horrifying piece of crap after another to cater to this crowd, and general trends in that company have been all but much worse for it.

Okay, so that's a bit of an extreme example.

The point I want to make here is that if publishers perceive the whales as being the money makers, and the whales themselves use this fact as leverage to make even more demands of the publishers, then trends in games will continue to homogenize towards whatever this vocal minority wants. Diversity could end up eroding, and we'd all be worse off for it.

The thing to me which holds Japanese games together when it comes to over the topness is that IRONY doesn't translate well. Which makes the ridiculous Japanese games for the most part come across as earnest and just insane for insanities sake. Nothing to me is more annoying that someone constantly winking at you about how insane this is or how stupid it is and "Hey we know you are smarter than our product" (HI Cabin in the Woods, ugh.)

I have a question about gaming websites like this one using NPD numbers over sites like VGChartz? I ask because NPD's seem to give very little info compared to a site like VGChartz that give weekly hardware and software estimates worldwide that seems to be pretty accurate. Here is this weeks global software totals
http://www.vgchartz.com/weekly/41154/Global/

Jeff C have you been keeping up on ArcheAge because this is so up your alley.

JURY DUTY IN MMOS
http://archeagesource.com/topic/988-the-suspected-thief-on-trial-screenshots/

Holy Shit. (Also CryEngine 3 MMO with destructible stuff)

I like weekend conf. i've listened to the podcast for a year or so but now i registered to tell you this:

i cant stand the guy who studder i-i-i-i-i-i-i--i-i-i-i-i- bla bla bla and talks super fast with an annoying voice. he's been on bonus round but now when it's only voice it's unbearable. Please don't let him on again. Love the guy from Ash though.

So what do you guys make of the third subscription model for MMOs that CCP added to EvE a couple years back that dove under a ton of radars. Players can purchase/convert real money into PLEX(30 Days of Game Time) which they can sell to other players for ISK(typically around 300million). Which creates an interesting feedback cycle in which the players with the game time to farm ISK can buy that game time from the people who want ISK quickly and can just pay real money to trade for ISK.


Whenever I get talking about EvE I wish and wish and wish that someone could convert the complexity of the world into a 'game' that is fun to play because the spreadsheet management of it is not for me but from the outside it looks so cool and the whole world is left to the players.

The way I'd like to see an open world Metal Gear work would be to create environments that live on their own and give you a number of objectives to complete in that environment. For example you might have an airbase where you need to sabotage a plane, steal some flight plan info, and take pictures of the cargo. It doesn't matter what order you do that in and the enemies on the base could change their actions depending on how you completed the objectives. In that environment NPCs wouldn't just be on the standard MGS patrol routes. Some might be, others might be doing chores, or relaxing. I'd love to see NPCs react differently to the signs they find that you're there. Taking out security cameras might results in extra guard patrols, finding a dead body might cause one reaction, finding a bunch of dead bodies might cause a completely different reaction.
I'd like to see smaller open world environments that have all the detail that typically goes into an MGS level. It also still sets up a very story driven game rather than a game where you goof around and get to "story" missions whenever. Love it or hate it, MGS needs the crazy story, characters, and even the silly game mechanics for it to be a MGS game.

Why did you have to tell such nice things about FIFA 13?

I wanted to give this year's version a pass because I already felt Fifa 12 was pretty much perfect -- especially when playing the online head-to-head seasons.

Now I'll have to go pre-order it I'm afraid, since I want to support every effort at making it a more realistic simulation!

Seriously Garnett, if they can make FF12 on the *PS2* be able to transition into battle with no loading screen, they can definitely do it on the PS3.

I think you all have the console hits covered.

When discussing the so called "collapse" of casual gaming. Yes, it's a collapse if you compare the sales of kinect sports 2 and sports champions to the sales of Wii sports 2. Yeah there's a huge gap between those titles. There's also a huge gap between titles like Rockband blitz, and Guitar Hero or proper Rockband. Let's face it if you replaced COD with killzone it would appear the FPS market was collapsing.

Just wait until the software that made casual games popular returns. Which we really haven't seen any casual powerhouse title outside of just dance for about 3 years now.

As for kids not gaming, no duh you went from 40 million DS owners to 2 million 3DS owners. There's going to be a drop off since Nintendo has moved on from the DS software production.

I was really surprised kingdom hearts was in the top 5. Actually, I'm surprised it continues to be relevant to the mainstream crowd (I'm assuming thats how it made those sales numbers). It made sense at first (Disney marketing + the huge audience of the PS2 = sales), but now? It's a bunch of spin offs. I would have thought that only people like me (Adam is right, it is absurd how many re-releases I own from this franchise) that would buy them.

Studies find that being pessimistic makes you appear more intelligent.

Garnet " I dont like that emotion at all I think that's dumb" (and Garnett's IQ grew 3 sizes that day. He understood the Internet. It wasn't about cheer and happiness at all, but gloom and denial...) that's all the further I got can you finish this please;)

Final fantasy 13 lightning returns sounds a lot like final fantasy 7: crisis core. Which is a amazing game and probably my favorite square product since 7. Wish FF7:CC was available on the vita psp store it's not. But looking forward to FF13:LR.