Ninja Theory announces mobile game Fightback
Sony explains why Gran Turismo 6 is not coming to PlayStation 4 (for now)
Valve forms Overwatch for CS:GO community to police itself
Joe Danger racing to PC this year
Splinter Cell Blacklist co-op modes partially detailed
Weekend Confirmed 150 - Ni No Kuni, Skulls of the Shogun, Proteus
by Jeff Mattas, Feb 01, 2013 11:00am PSTWeekend Confirmed is back, and this week, Garnett Lee, Jeff Cannata, "Indie" Jeff Mattas and Nikole Zivalich convene to talk about some new releases. Garnett kicks things off with some talk about his experience with Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, which is followed by some discussion about the recently-released indies, Skulls of the Shogun and Proteus. Naturally, the crew brings it all home with a batch of Finishing Moves, and the final post-show NFL TailGate of the season.
Weekend Confirmed Ep. 150: 2/1/2013
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If you're viewing this in the GameFly application, you can play Weekend Confirmed Episode 150 directly.
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 - 00:00:38 - 00:13:39
Whatcha' Been Playin Part 1 - 00:14:55 - 01:00:04
Whatcha Been Playin Part 2 01:01:32 - 01:30:46
Listener Feedback/Front Page News - 01:31:46 - 02:06:00
TailGate 02:06:47 – 02:16:14
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Jeff Cannata @jeffcannata
Jeff Mattas @JeffMattas
Nikole Zivalich @NikoleZ
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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
- Why the assumption that in order for something to be "art" it has to be all deep and profound?
- Why the assumption that something has to touch you on an emotional level in order for it's creator to have expressed him/herself?
- Why does a game narrative have to sucker punch you emotionally in order to qualify as artistic narrative?
- Why the broad assumption that something that makes you laugh can't also make you think?
- Do games have to do these things in order to live up to their so-called potential? Why?
This is a large part of why the Walking Dead discussion got to be so cloying. This type of clamoring for some sort of legitimacy is completely missing the point. It's especially baffling coming from Garnett, a guy who clearly loves his electronic dance music... a genre that is often broadly labeled as shallow.
The art world, for it's part, had this amazing thing known as the 20th century, which saw many artists and groups of artists deconstructing and challenging many of the notions of art that are now being held up as the supposed virtues of art-house indie video games.
Creating this false distinction between DmC and Proteus is like saying that Dark Side of the Moon can't be art because rock and roll doesn't qualify.
Could the mainstream audience stand to tolerate a broader range of game experiences? Sure, but holding up this one particular ideal of what an artistic game ought to be is inherently broader, it's a narrower range of experience, one that leaves little room for game creators to say anything that isn't in line with some black haired teenage slam poetry notion of what it means to be deep.
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Oh, Em, Gee!
This game is incredible, can't wait for it to come out!
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The most popular games have ultra-compelling long-term gameplay that the vast majority of indie games simply don't have. Games as short creative artistic expressions is really at the opposite end from what gamers want (obviously just speaking for those I know). Also, some have set an extremely difficult task for themselves. Trying to invent compelling gameplay mechanics that are truly new is next to impossible. Most of what we play are iterations of the same great mechanics that were invented decades ago. When something like that comes along you can be sure it will take off (Minecraft for example), but the rest will rot.
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So, that said, yes Miyazaki tends to make children's stories universal---usually through sheer imagination---but he also plays to conventional hero archetypes and so forth. My Neighbor Totoro is probably his only mostly kid oriented film, but something like Spirited Away is basically his version of Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland---a big, universal adventure story. Ni No Kuni plays somewhat close to the Spirited Away model, but Oliver is a bit young for a real "coming of age" arc, and there is something a bit Fischer Price to the whole affair.
Like given the Pokemon comparisons, if you compare the aesthetics of that ip to NNK's familiars, you see just how juvenile it is. I mean Pikachu would look ridiculous as a real life creature, but the fact that he's modeled after a mouse/rat lends him a credence of realism, where as the familiars all seem doughy like stuffed toys. Now you could say that the look of everything fits in on a metaphorical level coming from Oliver's point of view, but I'm not convinced the writing is going that deep or for any sense of irony. Like, Drippy is pretty quirky, but he's not exactly Mr. Potato head from Toy Story.
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"The threat right now is that Apple has gained a huge amount of market share, and has a relatively obvious pathway towards entering the living room with their platform. I think that there's a scenario where we see sort of a dumbed down living room platform emerging — I think Apple rolls the console guys really easily. The question is can we make enough progress in the PC space to establish ourselves there, and also figure out better ways of addressing mobile before Apple takes over the living room?"
Do you guys think Gabe has it right? Can Apple show up in the living room with a highly polished product and chase Nintendo, MS, and Sony out? Also, do you think he's underestimating the potential impact of the next Sony and MS consoles on the ability for the steam box to sell well?
Honestly it is one of main factors that would lead me to decide between buying a PS4 or neXtbox.
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I think his comments are clearly extreme, but when a game like Halo 4 scores a 9.8 on IGN I can see where his frustrations come from. But at least games like Journey and Walking Dead are getting their fare share of love from gamers and the media alike.
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On a kinder note, I hate this podcast because all I want to do is TALK TO YOU GUYS when I hear you talking. I seriously love the education and understanding you guys bring to the stuff you talk about, and it's so rare to get out of another person. Without getting an eye roll or a quick change of subject.
Anyway, great job guys. Nicole is grating my ears though. I guess you need to cover all your demographic bases.
SHE BASICALLY SAYS SHE HAS NO REASON TO DISLIKE NI NO KUNI EXCEPT THAT HER XBL FRIENDS AREN'T PLAYING IT.
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I think you folks do a great job with the podcast.]y
It's interesting, well-run/produced, smart & funny. I value your opinions and take them into consideration when buying games. For me, I find that my sensibilities overlap with yours (collectively speaking) such that you lend additional weight to those games already on my list. At the same time, you've also exposed me to games I might not have previously considered or known about.
Many thanks,
Gabrielle
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Counter-Strike had real gun names in the beta-mod version until Valve picked them up and they put out a retail version of Counter-Strike with all the gun names changed to fake ones. This was over 12 years ago, and maybe it's just 'cus I was really into Counter-Strike at the time, but it felt like a big deal back then. So to me, it's just odd that it's all sort of happening again, because I've already felt guilty about buying games that licensed gun "likenesses," or whatever they pay for, and accepted that it's just how it is. If I'm on the fence, it might affect my buying decision, but usually I'm not on the fence about a Call of Duty or something.
The funny thing is that the people who are really into guns, I mean, _really_ into guns, think that the virtual recreations of guns in games are fucking awful. They notice the gun ejection port of this gun is on the wrong side, the sights on that gun are totally messed up, and so on. It's comparable to how a gearhead would notice the default Ferrari in Forza 4 had some awful body kit. I hear these sorts of complaints all the time from people I play with who are really into military type stuff (as an aside, they aren't even that interested in owning the guns, they just really like learning about all that stuff, much like some guy who watches the History chanel all the time isn't [usually] going to go out and buy an Abrams tank).
So with that in mind, licensing guns seems really stupid to me. The people who actually care about thoughtful recreations/simulations of firearms are rarely pleased by slipshod gun recreations, and the people who don't know any better could care less if an AWP should actually be an AWM (Arctic Warfare Magnum). It makes sense for a game like ARMA II, because that's all about simulation, but it's just not necessary in Modern Warfare when nukes are going off all over the place.
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Microsoft had a strong management team at the start of this gen, and I don't think the new group has a clear understanding of what they where achieving.
A few questions for thought:
Does DMing a PnP game make the choice you have in a video game feel really limited in comparison to what your players could do? How much on the fly adapting where you forced to do?
Did you cheat any of your die rolls for the sake of the game? Is that much different that games with cutscenes or set pieces the player really doesn't have control over?
Do you think an RPG with a deep creation tool could be successful? Moreso than in the platformers and racers like we see now?
Finally, how did you like DMing vs playing?
has anyone of you guys got a chance to try the Oculus Rift yet?
I personally do think (hope) this is going to be a revolution in immersion that's going to esp benefit for more contemplative type of games... I can imagine just getting lost in exploring a beautiful forest or alien environment, etc. And probably also a revolution for racing games and flight sims.
Some pretty funny Oculus reactions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJo12Hz_BVI
Regarding SimCity, have any of you given Tropico 4 a try?
thanks!
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Come on. :(
Seriously? I'm must be the wrong demographic to listen to this show.
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Think about your two major target audiences for that franchise. Young kids, and competitive scene Pokefans. The latter is going to tear that game to shreds in a few days (not to mention PVP is gonna be a bloodbath) and how much do you really want the former to be hanging out in an MMO?
Not to mention, I remember Nintendo getting "fox newsed" over fricking Pictochat, not to mention reading sensationalist editorials online about how any adult seen playing Animal Crossing should be treated as a potential child molester. All it's gonna take is one kid giving naively giving out his personal info and the pundits would have the field day of the century.
Balancing a Pokemon MMO would be a logistical nightmare. Hell, it's no small feat under the current model, where GameFreak is already making balance and gameplay changes from generation to the next while maintaining compatibility with the previous generations.
Now imagine a situation where new content is simply added to the world via updates... all the new content needs to be balanced with the old, and players will lose their shit if their monsters get nerfed. Imagine how complicated that gets after only a few updates. In a game that's all about team building, optimal teams will be a matter of course, and no amount of updates will ever keep up with the competitive scene.
Then there's the simple matter of the payment model. How do you monetize a game like this that will be marketed towards kids? You can't do subscriptions, what kind of micro-transaction system to you implement? What do you put behind the pay wall that isn't going to disrupt the already delicate balance?
In short, the idea of a Pokemon MMO only sounds like a good idea if you're of the belief that there's no actual depth to the series. In reality, it would be a herculean undertaking that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemies.
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I'm fine with your criticism of Nintendo, I even agree with a lot of it. I just hate when false information is used to make an argument. :)
Oh, and Skyward Sword is not crappy. :P
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The analogy he used was dog food. Dog food is simply not food...it's not bad food or gross food or high volume food, it's inedible. If he had said fast food, then I could buy the tortured manipulation Jeff & Jeff went through to defend the guy.
IMO, he basically said the "games" that won game of the years aren't games.
And why does mr. indie care so much about GOTY's anyway? It's more than clumsy, it's immature and self-serving.
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I'm also wondering how much of what seems to be off for people is based on this actually being a beta to test things, rather than one to sell people on the game? Some of the complaints Garnett and Jeff had sounded a lot like the dev team wanted to see what happens when you actually run a wide spectrum of the games (or simulations).
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By the way I'm not a Jedi, but my friends call me Reverand, I hope that's enough :)
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Of course in the year of the replacement refs, the real refs blow the biggest call in the SUPERBOWL and decide the game!!! If that isn't poetic justice I don't know what is lmao!!!
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So I finally started playing New Super Mario Bros U (It's wonderful, BTW, as if you needed me to tell you that) and I'm playing with Miiverse integration turned on. This means seeing posts made by other players as I look at the map, but it also means that every time I die, I see a screen of posts made by other players who died a lot on that particular stage.
The latter case is really starting to get me down. I'd say that I've died a fair number of times in the pursuit of looking for secrets, or from just hopping around having fun, and every time I do, I face a screen littered with scribbly nerd rage from players complaining that a stage is too hard, too unfair, or how they hate this or that enemy, and every variation in between.
This happens. Every. Single. Time.
Now, I don't want to be too hard on them, cause I've certainly been there myself (Super Meat Boy says hi, so does Ninja Gaiden), and it's obviously different people for different stages, but at the same time, it's as if the game went out of it's way to find complaints about every stage in the game and display them over and over again on every death screen, and the impression it then creates is an utter lack of perseverance on a worldwide scale.
I just want to reach into the TV, grab these people by the Miis and shout "Come on! It's a Mario game! You can do this if you just try a little harder!"
I kind of hate being that person, because I've got more then enough experience being on the receiving end of that person's self-satisfied attitude when I complained about something being too hard for me... but at the same time, have we really come so far in expecting games to let us win that we think MARIO is unfair?
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Great episode, gang. I too pull my hair at the goldmine Nintendo seems to be ignoring.
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As our first game on Wii U (on any Nintendo platform for that matter), the bulk of our effort had to be spent ensuring that the engine was ported over well and that the game made the transition safely. We were also shipping on more platforms than we've ever shipped on at once before, and there just wasn't the time and bandwidth to support off-TV mode, unfortunately. That mode requires the dev to implement it entirely (as opposed to simply being handled by the hardware), and it just wasn't feasible with the resources we had.
As much as I don't like the tablet play feature the fact that it isn't a simple step seems ludicrous to me, that does not bode well I think.
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Where are all the WiiU games at??? THE WIIU IS 2 MONTHS (and 12 days) OLD!!!!! Calm down.
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Microsoft has shown that they are happy to run consumer level betas. Arguably Windows Vista was a beta for Windows 7, Zune a beta for Windows Phones, and the original Xbox for the 360. Could the current offer for the $99 Xbox be a beta for a next gem pricing scheme. With a consumer base used to 2 year contracts on everything from phones, to cable and satellite, heck even electricity in some parts of the country, could this type of pricing become the norm next time around.
I can see some big pluses for this mindset.
1.) Microsoft could hit that magic sweet spot of $199 to $250 right out the gate, which leads to...
2.) A faster early adoption rate, leading to a faster than normal transition to their next Xbox, which brings us to...
3.) Developers transitioning quicker to the new hardware, and possibly keeping the Xbox as the lead sku, due to install base, which could be argued as a big part of what helped the 360 in the current generation.
Well there is my theory, have at Weekend Confirmed and the internet.
(dresses into flame retardant suit)
-The Lugo
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Disagreement leads to better discussions I have found also.
I dislike when people throw away fantastic tales as not really meaning something in comparison to something more grounded because it completely destroys the concept of allegory and metaphor.
And congratulations on the 150 episode milestone guys! Keep up the great work.
Cheers from downunder,
Shane
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Just kidding. In all seriousness, I just played Proteus and enjoyed it a lot, and I say that as someone who has historically not liked pretentious art games. I recommend it.
But seriously Jeff, slow down on the ganja.
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