Episode 266: Get That E3 Kick

Jonah Falcon and Paul S. Nowak return from the magical E3 2012 videogame convention and everyone has their own opinions on what they thought were the highlights and lowlights of E3. They also make their own predictions, as Dan Quick contemplates writing hate mail to Jonah for having access to SimCity and Need for Speed: Most Wanted.

The podcast also features some great news, including:

  • THQ closes their San Diego Studio, sells the UFC license
  • Ubisoft states annual Assassin’s Creed releases funded AC3
  • Vivendi may sell Activision-Blizzard

There’s also some Reader Feedback, as well as the new Question of the Week, “What did you take away from E3?”

0 thoughts on “Episode 266: Get That E3 Kick”

  1. Seeing as I posted my comment late on the previous podcast, and the topic was E3, I’ll just copy and paste it.

    Plenty of games have been added to my list of games I want to play, among them are:
    -Need for Speed Most Wanted
    -Epic Mickey 2
    -New Super Mario Bros. U
    -Pikmin 3
    -Rayman Legends
    -Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
    -Tomb Raider
    -Watch Dogs

    Worst E3 conference was Microsoft, best was Ubisoft. What I don’t get is how many people are “disappointed” by Nintendo’s conference, expecting huge releases such as Zelda, Metroid, F-Zero or even Smash Bros. I think that many people do not understand how long it takes to make the great games Nintendo makes, and expect them to churn them out like Call of Duty. I also think that it’s a smart move by Nintendo, releasing quite a few good titles at launch, and then pace the awesome games one by one for the future. Maybe this way the WiiU won’t run out of first-party games as soon as the Wii did.

    2 questions, both for Paul:
    So, did you shit your pants when Nintendo announced the WiiU will come out Holiday 2012?
    Have you finished Skyward Sword yet?

  2. Jonah, good call on the next level of consoles by the games displayed.

    @THQ closes their San Diego Studio, sells the UFC license
    It’s cold, hard, business. Sorry for the devs though. 2 mil. sales at a medium price of 20 USD that would give us aprox. 40 mil. USD.

    @annual Assassin’s Creed releases funded AC3:
    This means that the games are quite good, if they manage to provide a good revenue stream. Kudos to the developers then.

    @Vivendi may sell Activision-Blizzard:
    Talking about short term thinking … they’re going to sell the powerhouse that got them a truckload of money, without taking into account the possibility that they might build another great game.

    Mission Impossible for NES is based on the TV series.

    Jordan, you don’t play PC games :O ?!

  3. Had to be the most boring E3 I’ve seen. I only managed to stomach 3 conferences: Microsoft, EA and Nintendo. And I want my 3 hours 43 minutes 57 seconds back.

    @Microsoft: I was very surprised when the conference ended after Black Ops. Iwas expecting at least another 30 minutes when Microsoft usually brings out some exciting stuff. But it never happened. A very anti-climatic finish when compared to previous Microsoft conferences.

    @EA
    OMFG!!! They made sport more realistic than it is in real life. The only way to top that is to stick a joypad up David Beckham’s arse. Why go outside and play ball with friends when you can wall yourself from society and game yourself into a blind comatose stupour.

    @Nintendo
    No launch date. No launch price. No launch line up. No information on the Wii U. Will it have proper on-line capabilities? What will be Wii U policy on DLC, DRM, Region Lock, Backwards Compatability, Friend Codes etc… But Oh My Gard it will have Pikmin. And what happened to the 3DS? Why did I even buy this brick? To play Mario game remakes? There is only so many times I can stomp a goomba. I recently purchased Mario Kart 7 and it feels like an expansion pack to the 2006 DS version. In 3D. Was it made by George Lucas? For one, I am looking forward to the arrval of Assasin’s Creed and Mass Effect on the Wii U. I am sick and tired of saving princesses.

    @DynamicJul
    Recently we have seen critics bashing Nintendo’s golden IP. If I was to tell you 2 years ago that a Zelda game will recieve on average 7 out of 10 from most critics, you would call me insane. But such is the truth. It appears to be that Nintendo’s golden formulas have been over-abused. Pokemon. Zelda. Mario. Each iteration closely builds on the previous one. I stopped playing Pokemon because I am bored of following the same story doing the same things but with 150 new ugly Pokemon. Same can be applied to Zelda. On this E3 people wanted to see something new. They wanted to see how the Wii U will transform classic IPs into modern HD versions. Remember, Nintendo’s own developing studio has next to none experience with HD high performace games. People wanted to see at least a glimpse of what is to come.

    Overall, dull E3. I was expecting something more. I just hope more info will be available about the Wii U. It’s my last attempt to go Nintendo. If Wii U fails, I will turncoat to Microsoft for the following eternity. Sick and tired of bricks…

    PS: I hope in the next episode you will cover Warren Specter’s comment on ultraviolent games. So that I will get an opportunity to tear that prick apart and re-assemble him the way he shoul be.

  4. @Arthur V

    Woah, woah, woah… what are you talking about?

    The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword – Metacritic score of 93. Where the hell did you get an average of 7 out of 10?

    Pokemon Black and White has a metacritic rating of 87.

    Mario Kart 7: metacritic score of 85.

    Super Mario 3D Land: metacritic score of 90.

    As far as critics go, they still all agree that Nintendo makes stellar games with their IPs

    By the way, it’s my birthday today.

  5. Happy Birthday DynamicJul. And I got those scores from Gamespot. I have been using Gamespot since 2006 or so. They are sometimes unnecessarily harsh on games but I can see the point they are making regarding Nintendo games. Regardless, I still firmly stand by my point that Nintendo’s press conference was a drag. It could have been way better.

  6. Hate to break this to you, Dynamic, but that game only sold because it had the Zelda title, and Nintendo’s Iwata just made a statement that everyone hated the Wiimote, citing the fact that only 40% of people who owned Zelda actually finished the game thanks to the bad controls.

    And that’s coming from Nintendo.

  7. Sorry to post another comment, this will be the last one, but I had to get this out.

    First of all, isn’t it kind of the point that it’s a Zelda game? Nintendo has always been about their famous IPs, and that’s why they are constantly being made.

    About Iwata saying everyone hated the Wiimote, I’m sure that it is taken way out of context, please provide me a link because I want to read its source. I haven’t heard a lot about people hating the Wiimote, I’m pretty sure there are plenty of people like me who enjoyed playing the game with the MotionPlus.

    And lastly, if 40% of people who owned it actually finished it, that is quite good, because nowadays single-player games are rarely finished. It has been found that only 10% of Red Dead Redemption owners played the last mission (http://bit.ly/qXeB45). In a recent survey, taken by IGN users (majority obviously active gamers), only 51% of them always finish single-player games (http://go.ign.com/MdYUey). So yeah, 40% is not a bad number, at all.

  8. hi guize!!!
    no time so…
    @QOTW
    Watch Dogs
    Need MW
    and the sad news that next gen consoles will make my PC “useless”… again…
    must acquire currency and purchase new PC T-T

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Scrabulous Out, Scrabble InScrabulous Out, Scrabble In

For those that are Facebook junkies, playing their hearts out of Scrabulous, you’re going to be hit with some reality: it’s not real scrabble. Hasbro has attempted to pull the Scrabulous game off of Facebook because they’re not licensing it from the owner, but it’s still there. Is Hasbro’s “real” Scrabble going to sway addicted Scrabulous players?

Now, Hasbro is launching the real Scrabble game on pogo.com and on Facebook for social networking purposes. Our own Casual Gamer Chick, Jennifer, will be reviewing the upcoming Facebook app later this week (once we get her to sign up for Facebook!)

This will be Hasbro’s first go at social networking, given their trying to beat out Scrabulous, it’s going to be a tough battle, let’s see how they do!

(more…)

Episode 669: Quick Pre-PAX ShowEpisode 669: Quick Pre-PAX Show

Jonah’s heading off to cover PAX Unplugged on Thursday morning, so this week’s podcast has been a quick, sub-40 minute show, even with a Gaming Flashback of Infamous 2, a game that former co-host Jordan Lund is probably far more familiar with.

This week’s news includes:

  • Report suggests Microsoft soon to offer concessions in Activision deal
  • Two Point Campus goes boldly into space for brand new expansion
  • Pokemon Scarlet & Violet sells 10 million units in three days
  • Monster Hunter Rise reportedly heading to PlayStation and Xbox in January

Let us know what you think.

Episode 252: DuckTalesEpisode 252: DuckTales

This week, Paul can’t make it, so we bring on a Paul substitute, Dan Quick of the PolyCast podcast – and the show doesn’t skip a beat thanks to Dan behaving like Paul without realizing it. This week’s Gaming Flashback explodes like a blood sausage with Wasteland.

This week’s news items include:

  • Dashboard update gives Indie Marketplace more visibility
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 outed by Amazon France
  • Skyrim DLC won’t follow same model as Fallout DLC
  • Electronic Arts terminates “free Battlefield 3 for preordering Mass Effect 3” deal early
  • Alan Wake on PC because Remedy “a nagging little kid” to Microsoft

In addition, we have Reader Feedback for Paul’s Pixie Diamonds contest – the winners will be determined next week. The contest’s Question of the Week remains the same: “Who is your favorite Disney Prince or Hero, and why?”