Episode 268: Fake Maple Syrup

In this episode of Gaming Podcast, Daniel Quick discusses how to become a true Canadian, while Jonah Falcon talks about making blond, green-eyed characters. There’s no Gaming Flashback this week, but plenty of news items.

This week’s discussion:

  • Nintendo announces XL version of Nintendo 3DS
  • Dev claims Microsoft killed XBLA version of Stranger’s Wrath
  • New users must now pass “review process” to unlock full Diablo III
  • Dragon’s Dogma getting sequels after shipping 1M
  • Valve and Cartoon Network collaboration hints at Team Fortress 2 show

All this, and the Question of the Week is “What weird rituals do you do when playing videogames?”

0 thoughts on “Episode 268: Fake Maple Syrup”

  1. @Nintendo announces XL version of Nintendo 3DS: No surprises there. It’s kind of a given that they make new versions of their handhelds after it has been proven very profitable for them.

    @New users must now pass “review process” to unlock full Diablo III: All this makes me wonder is, how much higher would the number of sales be if there hadn’t been all this stupid DRM on the game? Don’t know why they feel the need to punish their customers. It seems that only Valve knows that the way to being a loved company is by being loyal to its customers.

    @Valve and Cartoon Network collaboration hints at Team Fortress 2 show: After I’ve seen what can be done with the “Meet” shorts, I can say that I’m interested to see what they come up with.

    @QOTW: Nope, not really. Apart from making sure I have proper lighting and heating/cooling, I don’t do anything special.

  2. Jonah, no rush on Mission Impossible. I can come up with other weird NES games 🙂

    @Nintendo announces XL version of Nintendo 3DS
    I’m curious if this has to do with the pixel size as well. When the console was announced (display size and resolution) I crunched some numbers to find out the view distance to fully use that resolution. It came up as about 8 inches. That’s too close.
    A bigger screen would also mean a bigger view distance.

    @Dev claims Microsoft killed XBLA version of Stranger’s Wrath
    This is so odd. What’s it to MSFT if the game gets distributed or not on XBLA? Normally a publisher would not care that much as long as some quality standards are met.
    I mean it’s not like they’re worried about shelf space, we’re talking about a digital distribution channel.

    @New users must now pass “review process” to unlock full Diablo III
    *clears throat* Ahem!
    Bwa ha ha ha ha 😀 😀 😀
    And I thought that online DRM was the worst thing that could happen to a single player game. Boy, was I wrong!
    And if this doesn’t ramp up piracy, then I don’t know what will.

    @Valve and Cartoon Network collaboration hints at Team Fortress 2 show
    Dunno … they’ll have to move outside of the game in order to make it happen.
    We’ll see.

  3. @steel battalion poor reviews:

    well to be fair the problem doesn’t seem to be its complexity its that as per usual with kinect it just doesn’t interpret your commands correctly 75% of the time.

    and hey ubisoft press conference had more than watchdogs ….rayman legends looks amazing. =p

  4. What is this place? Why am I writing this? Who are you people? Must…save…Skyrim. VAMPIRES ARE EVERYWHERE!!! THE DAWNGUA OK I am back in the real world now.

    @3DS XL
    Enjoy not having any games to play in greater resolution. Good point made by Paul: it’s not the size that matter’s. It’s the way you use it.I bought a DSi because it was a massive improvement over the original DS in terms of hardware and software. 3DS XL is just a bigger brick with bigger screens. A premium brick is still a brick.

    @Oddworld: Strangers Wraith
    I loved the game. It was a very interesting twist on a first person shooter. An adventure FPS with an interesting story and fun gameplay. As far as I remember, EA killed it by not advertising it. When it came out there was not a single mention of the game in media. And you had FIFA 2006 adverts posted on every bus, wall and toilet roll in London. Thanks a lot, EA.

    @Diablo 3:
    Que Blizzard: “No you can’t play the game offline. No, you can’t play it online either. Just give us your money, sit down and shutup. We made the game. We decide who deserves to play it and you clearly don’t unless we perform a full criminal record check and ensure that your credit card is American Express Mega Gold Platinum X”

    To follow up a point made last week, just out of quriosity, if you have an opportunity to customize your game(i.e. create a character or change his name) do you personalize them and give them your name (or nickname) and your likeness? Or do you leave default settings? I tend to try and represent myself as much as I can in an MMO or Skyrim, but usually leave default settings in games where they are definitive of the series. All of my Zelda characters are called Link and my main Mass Effect character is the front cover Shepherd as he is on every media advert on the planet.

Leave a Reply

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

Related Post

Gamers Rejoice: Rhythm Game Instrument Compatibility!Gamers Rejoice: Rhythm Game Instrument Compatibility!

Compatibility. This is all we’re really asking for when it comes to rhythm gaming on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii. So far it seems Microsoft isn’t just on board, but enforcing compatibility between instruments from Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour and Konami’s Rock Revolution. Sony has also confirmed this behavior on their blog.

What does this mean for gamers? It means we’ll be able to go out and buy the franchise of our choice and not feel we’re locked out of other rhythm games. You can choose the accessories that work best for you and enjoy all the games each developer provides.

This enforcement keeps the developers/publishers in check because they’re going to be highly competitive and looking for any advantage to lock the customer into their product, that’s just business. Having a moderator to say “play nice” is important for the console makers as it allows their customers to be happy and purchasing all this licensed great content. Microsoft and Sony will make more money if customers don’t feel they can only buy a single product.

It’s not about the accessories, it’s about the games. Accessories may make a game better so let the customer decide which will be better and may the best company win!

As for Nintendo? As long as their accessories always use Wii Remote controls everyone is fine, once they break this protocol they’ll have to build their own enforcement or start to lose the edge other console makers are sharpening.

(Thanks, GamerScoreBlog)

Gaming Podcast 163: Arcade, Beer and RibsGaming Podcast 163: Arcade, Beer and Ribs

This weeks gaming podcast is epic, as per the usual, we had some really thought out community comments about DRM, game history on Krull and a bit of history on D. Gottleib & Co. This weeks news includes:

And, our question of the week, would you give up your job to be a video game tester?

Episode 258: New BloodEpisode 258: New Blood

Because you asked for it, the podcast features four guys, including Jonah Falcon, Paul S. Nowak, Jordan Lund, and Dan Quick. This is the no frills edition, however, as due to travel to PAX East, there’s no Gaming Flashback, and only a few news items.

They include:

We also include Reader Feedback. We’ll have a Question of the Week next week, we promise.