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Weekend Confirmed 144 - Holiday Special Part 1 - 2012 retrospective
by Jeff Mattas, Dec 21, 2012 11:00am PSTThis week kicks off a special two-part episode of Weekend Confirmed to celebrate the best in gaming for 2012. A cavalcade of special guests joins Garnett, Jeff Cannata, and "Indie" Jeff Mattas, including Shacknews' Andrew Yoon, James Stevenson from Insomniac, Jason Paul from Naughty Dog, Andrea Rene from Machinima, and comedian Christian Spicer. Personal favorites of the year are revealed, and much fun and merriment is had by all. Be sure to tune in next week for Part 2 of the special Weekend Confirmed holiday/end-of-2012 celebration, too!
Weekend Confirmed Ep. 144: 12/21/2012
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Weekend Confirmed comes in four segments to make it easy to listen to in segments or all at once. Here's the timing for this week's episode:
Show Breakdown:
Round 1 - 00:00:50 - 00:32:19
Whatcha' Been Playin Part 1 - 00:33:04 - 01:04:24
Whatcha Been Playin Part 2 01:05:08 - 01:42:40
Listener Feedback/Front Page News - 01:43:23 - 02:19:06
Tailgate - 02:19:46 - 02:26:03
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Christian Spicer @spicer
James Stevenson @JamesStevenson
Mike Schramm @MikeSchramm
Jason Paul @jmpaul
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Original music in the show by Del Rio. Get his latest Album, Club Tipsy on iTunes. Check out more, including the Super Mega Worm mix and other mash-ups on his ReverbNation page or Facebook page, and follow him on twitter @delriomusic.
Comments
Compare it to last year where you had Portal 2, Skryim, Bastion, Batman, Legend of Zelda, and Uncharted; maybe Deus Ex and Dark Souls depending on where you fell on them. I think Portal 2 and Skyrim were far and away the best. However, if you put them in the mix with this year's games, could you say the same thing? I think you can't.
To me, 2012 was a surprising year and not a disappointing one. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think this year was at least as good, if not a little better, than the last.
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Finally back to work and getting a chance to listen to the podcasts
First and foremost happy new year and thanks for giving us the best and most rational gaming podcast throughout past year
Great discussion all around.
and thanks for bringing Binary Domain as one of the most overlooked games past year. It's probably my GOTY. yes, there are a few kinks here and there, but to me it was the most memorable game I played last year
I work in a game studio and probably 85% of the people have not even heard of it, let alone play it... and that's kinda sad.
There is no future for that system at all. The 3rd party devs are deserting the platform. And there is no consumer interest for such a device with Smartphone devices that are more and more compelling as proper gaming platforms.
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So the reason Mass Effect 3 fails, where as TWD succeeds, is that ME is asking the player to project a personality onto their avatar, where as TWD is asking the player to change what happens by changing what an existing character does. Its like giving the player the opportunity to participate in a person's life Ground Hog Day style.
That said, everyone who is engaged in this debate, and deriding The Walking Dead as not qualifying as a game, needs to watch this trailer for the PS2 title Shadow of Destiny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9e4fkop7CE
"It may seem trivial,
but suppose you're in a cafe
trying to decide between coffee and tea.
The you that chooses coffee,
after a long deliberation,
and the you that chooses tea
actually both exist."
And a tag line: "Life is a wheel of changes."
This is an adventure game with 8 endings, and dozens of variations in the plot leading up to those endings. It is no more mechanically in depth than the Walking Dead, but it does compensate the player for figuring out a variety ways to shape the long term outcome of the plot.
"Player choice" is a falsehood, but branching narrative is not.
So on The Walking Dead you can't just say it isn't a game because the architecture of the design is built around its story. And likewise you can not just isolate the story itself and proclaim that it isn't "game." The story of TWD is intrinsic to what kind of game it is.
So likewise on Mass Effect, it is irresponsible for a critic of games to just throw up his or her hands and say "well there's just no way they could have actually made the story different based on your choices." That game's failure was based on the false concept of the player projecting his or her individuality into the experience, and conflating that with strong narrative.
Also props to Garnet for going all out on this episode.
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I hate to break it to you but before Far Cry 3, there were 2 other Far Cries---and they weren't that different]. Before Halo 4, there were like 10 other Halo games. And sorry, but Guild Wars 2 and XCOM are not mega transcendent titles. I'm sure they're great, but they're not setting the world on fire.
The assertion about Uncharted 2 is just completely baffling. If Uncharted 2 came out this year it wouldn't be as big because Uncharted 2 already came out three years ago That's the entire point of the discussion. Uncharted 3 wasn't considered better than 2 because it didn't set a new water mark for all of gaming in the same way!
We are now in the seventh year of this console life cycle, from when the 360 launched. We have officially seen new engines running at various tech shows, and even fully playable gameplay footage of titles that don't appear to have platforms to come out on yet.
Gamers aren't just disappointed (I think you guys got way too hung up on that terminology) with titles this year, they are frustrated with the entire state of gaming because game development hasn't been this stagnant in a looonnnggg time. We haven't endured such a long of a gap between generation cycles. That's not just a "subjective" take as Andrea tried to suggest, its an objective reality.
I look at The Last of Us and think it could be one of those generational swan song kind of titles, and I can't wait to play it. I certainly want to play that and GTAV way more than anything that came out this year. But I also look at Watch Dogs and Star Wars 1313, and think, all these games look kind of fucking muddy and dated. I am ready for an upgrade.
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Now granted some of the timed questioned didn't need to be timed, but thats the whole point of the game. to make you uncomfortable, your not supposed to take time and find your most comfortable answer, your supposed to make your gut reaction and then live with it, you can always play again with the previous knowledge if you really want to have the extra time... but then again people play games how they want and i respect that.
also like i mentioned in the last Weekend Confirmed post, The Walking Dead: The Game is basicaly a visual Adventure book game made real with some added (bad) puzzle elements and some other arcadey/half ass action moments. these adventure book type of games are most deffinetly games and just because the "gameplay" is sort of like the Rorschach inkblob test in the way you are presented a situation and made ot make a quick descision in walking dead, shouldn't exclude it as a game of the year. the example i give is that i LOVE chrono trigger, and it's not because the "gameplay" hooked me, my love for that game is the story and the characters. it could have had bad RPG systems and i feel like i still would have loved the characters and story. the same is said for Planescape: Torment, the mechanics/gameplay are very second to the story/characters.
maybe thats the thing though, just like how people can learn different ways (visial, practice, study) people will feel what abetter game is for a year to them in different ways...
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i would like to tell all of you i (and hopefully we) appreciate the hell out of you guys for taking the time each week to continue conversations about games and the hobby itself while also bringing personal insight in to how this crazy hobby works. The time given by you guys all year is a joy for me to listen too and think over. You cover PC, indie, console, and even some portable/mobile all the while giving us stories, reactions and news. I am not sure exactly why people connect to others they bearly know through podcasts, but rest assured wherever any of you go or end up at i will follow and support you to the best of my abilities.
Happy Holidays, Merry New Year, and much love to all of you.
-cory
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Regarding the discussion about the year supposedly being "disappointing," James was 100% right and you're all idiots for arguing with him.
Disappointment is based on expectations, not reality. The year could have been as great as anything, but if you expected more, that's disappointment. It's not a statement on the quality of anything, it's a statement of where things stand relative you where you thought they were going to stand.
Great show, as always, but I really hope you're embarrassed in hindsight over that exchange.
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Great show !
First I agree 100 % with James. 100 % and I think many gamerz feel that way.
There wasn't ANY game that define the gen as a Modern Warfare, Mario Galaxy, Bioshock, Uncharted 2 or Mass Effect 2.
NOT A SINGLE GAME this year would be a contender for Game of the Gen. That's why the year was disappointing. End of gen games are generally among the best of the gen and it wasn't the case this year. When games like Wlaking Dead and Journey gets game of the year titles, that means the year was weak ! PERIOD.
Can someone explain me why Persona 4 Golden is so praised in Metacritic ? The game is like one of the most highest rated game of all time ? SINCE WHEN ? The game was NEVER that critical darling during PS2 era ? NOBODY would even consider it one of the top PS2 game and now it's better rated than ANY PS2 game ? Someone has an explanation for that ?
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I just wanted to pop in while taking a second from celebrating with the family and editing my novel. This has been a great year, and I hope the Weekend Confirmed crew and all you here on the board has a wonderful holiday.
I am furiously trying to get my book in shape in time to enter it in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest. I highly doubt I will win, but I want to get it in anyway.
I appreciate all the great discussions we have here. We may have petty squabbles sometimes, but I couldn't be more grateful to have such an awesome place to take a break from teaching, writing, and trying to be a good husband and father.
I hope you all have an amazing 2013!
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Atorias of the Abyss
Mark of the Ninja
Journey
Borderlands 2
Diablo 3
Gravity Rush
Wipeout 2048
That combined with all the titles I am aware of yet haven't gotten a chance to play yet makes me feel it was pretty good.
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To the actual point about the console, yes it's to damn expensive, yes it's a bulky mess, and yes it's a great device. Unfortunately great device doesn't add up to great console. I love my vita, but it fits my lifestyle and playstyle.
What does the vita remind me of... Well the Nomad. Plays the big boy games from the console in a lesser capacity, but lacks original titles. Think of this how many titles does the vita have unique to it... I count gravity rush, and a few psn style games that are C's at best.
Then you see the shelf space the vita gets and you think, WOW my DVD collection from this year is bigger than that (you see the joke is I use Netflix for all my movie purposes). The vita may not be a absolute flop, but its a failure and no it's not turning around this was its holiday to make a splash and prove it had some sustainability.
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That be like a field goal kicker, a punter, and a offensive tackle being the leaders in the NFL MVP race. That says it was a weak year.
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The thing with a lot of the western open world games, especially Bethesda games, is that at some point they kinda just drop in the middle of the world and make most of the content accessible all at once. It just depends on where you choose to wander. Fallout 3 was one of the first WRPGs I played and I ended up sticking to the main quest until I had to make a very conscious decision to break off and do side quests. With Skyrim many have argued that the main quest is the least interesting part of the game. I even made a character with which I have no intention to ever touch the main quest (I've done whole quest lines with no dragons even showing up in the world).
People are starting to notice that a major weakness of Far Cry 3 is that you can clear the entire first island of pirates before you barely even start the main missions, making players overpowered very early into the game.
The difference with Japanese games like Yakuza 4]. I think is that they seem to prioritize the main quest a lot more. Side quests are there, but they aren't as in-your-face. A common problem with JRPGs though is that you end up stopping to do all the side quests right before the finale of the main quest.
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