Episode 287: Dead Cats

This week’s Gaming Podcast is chock full of news and reader feedback. Rather than do a Gaming Flashback, a conversation about the middling sales of the PlayStation Vita is discussed, while Paul is anxiously looking for a black Wii U so he can play Epic Mickey 2. We also hand out the indie game prizes to our two winners.

This week’s news includes:

  • Star Citizen hits $4.5M stretch goal, biggest crowd fundraiser ever
  • Black Ops 2 1.03 patch doesn’t fix server issues
  • Deus Ex: Human Revolution film director tabbed
  • Spector: Epic Mickey 2 takes “choice and consequence to new levels

This week’s Question of the Week: What was the best game you ever played that cost less than $5?

In addition, this is the two days of Kickstarter funding. Help the TD Gaming Podcast with its Kickstarter fundraising.

0 thoughts on “Episode 287: Dead Cats”

  1. @Deus Ex: Human Revolution film director tabbed:
    “I didn’t ask for this” – Deus Ex guy (sue me, i forgot the guy’s name)
    “But i’ll take it… gladly” – Me

    @QOTW:
    I have a list…
    Cthulhu Saves the world (epic fun awesome RPG)
    Terraria (bought for 2.50)
    Space Pirates and Zombies (2.50 as well – all hail Ganben)
    I could go on, but these are the high awesomeness ones!

  2. Have not yet listened to the podcast, but I thank you very much for the games. Made my crappy day a lot better =D.

  3. Jordan, glad to hear about the job.

    @Star Citizen hits $4.5M stretch goal
    Jonah, good point on stretch goals. If I ever ever come up with a project that requires funding, and if I put it on Kickstarter, it’ll have all the requirements mentioned, no stretch goals.

    @Black Ops 2 1.03 patch doesn’t fix server issues
    Ah, EA’s way of pushing Origin … just kidding!
    Still, gotta hand it to them the way they do their testing :P. You can test for server outages, bad network conditions, you can test that.
    What can I say, COD lost me at Modern Warfare 2. It became just waay too action movie like. Now, Medal Of Honor, that’s a modern warfare game that I liked!

    @Deus Ex: Human Revolution film director tabbed
    Meh … i liked Mortal Kombat, but that’s pretty much it on games turned into movies.

    @QOTW:
    Ib. Free game, no microtransactions. It went waaay above my expectations, becoming a point of reference for “story and characters beat graphics”.

  4. @Deus Ex: Human Revolution film director tabbed: Seriously, how many video game movies have been announced and then they run into problems? Just wait until you actually have finished something, and just announce it with a trailer because I’m getting sick of this. Halo, Uncharted, God of War, Castlevania, World of Warcraft, Devil May Cry, Shadow of the Colossus, Bioshock and Gears of War are just a few of the many that will probably never see the light of day.

    @Epic Mickey 2: Seeing as the sequel got pretty much the same reviews as the 1st one which I loved, I will probably end up playing this. Would be pretty excited to play it if I hadn’t like 6 new games which I would like to play.

  5. @Kickstarting the Party

    As fun as Kickstarter sounds, I stay away from it. I am very conservative about how my games are made and frown upon the Rise of Communism in gaming. I still think that Kickstarter is just a passing fad and will eventually wither away.

    @Patchy Black Ops

    Haven’t played multiplayer. Although I own the Xbox 360 version so I should be safe. People expect Xbox games to run well on-line because we pay the Gold Tax and are entitled on it. Maybe PS3 should have had a payed subscription. It’s on-line is a mess compared to Xbox 360. It’s not just Black Ops that runs bad.

    @Deus Ex

    At least it wasn’t Uwe Boll…

    @Taking the Mickey

    Jonah’s right. Epic Mickey 2 is taking a critical beating. It doesn’t matter how many endings you have if your AI partner puts all effort ensuring that you never make it to the end.

    @QOTW

    GunZ Online. I played it back in 2006 before it went freemium. Back then there weren’t that many free on-line games. Especially action games that weren’t MMORPGs. That made GunZ stand out and I sunk a good few life-times into that game. Occasionally I come back there but the smell of nostalgia is not enough to keep me interested for long. Better games to play these days.

Leave a Reply

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

Related Post

The PSN FiascoThe PSN Fiasco

It’s now the US government’s turn to question Sony about its online security, which follows the UK government’s scrutiny into the company’s affairs.

In a letter addressed to PlayStation executive deputy Kaz Hirai, the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade has prepared a list of questions related to the intrusion; the list can be downloaded from the New York Times here. The letter asks several questions that Sony has not disclosed to the public, such as:

  • How many PSN users had a credit card on file
  • Why Sony cannot determine if credit card was stolen.
  • What are Sony’s plans towards increasing its security in the future.

The Subcommittee’s press release states:

“Given the amount and nature of personal information known to have been taken, the potential harm that could be caused if credit card information was also taken would be quite significant. The Subcommittee on Manufacturing, and Trade has a longstanding interest in consumer privacy, identity theft, and industry efforts to address threats posed by unauthorized access to consumers’ personal information resulting from a data breach.”

The Subcommittee is requiring a reply by no later than May 6, as part of a privacy driven effort “to protect consumer information.”

Meanwhile, Kaz Hirai will be holding a press conference tomorrow from Sony Japan, to address the PlayStation Network hacking crisis.

(more…)

Australian PSN Restoration DelayedAustralian PSN Restoration Delayed

The Japanese government has not allowed PlayStation Network to be activated for Japanese gamers yet due to security concerns, and now an expert is advising Australia to follow suit.

Professor Bill Caelli told newspaper The Australian, “Why is it that in the IT industry enterprises certify themselves?” said Caelli, noting that PSN didn’t have the same restrictions, and added that the public has “no way of assessing the assurances given by the owners of the (PSN) system themselves”.

Reportedly, Australian privacy commissioner Timothy Pilgrim has been in contact with Sony, and has not judged yet whether Sony has given them enough information to restore PSN. His investigation will be an ongoing one as well, even after PSN is restored.

When it was discovered user information had been stolen during the PSN breach, the Australian federal government announced plans for a law forcing companies to disclose privacy breaches, although it was unclear when it might come into effect. Privacy minister Brendan O’Connor had stated:

“Sony isn’t alone. We’ve seen serious privacy-related incidents in recent months involving other large companies. All companies that collect customers’ personal information must ensure that the information is safe and secure from misuse.”

We’ll stay on this story as it develops.

Episode 411: We Are Experiencing Technical DifficultiesEpisode 411: We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties

This podcast is delayed due to unforeseen circumstances, but there’s plenty of banter between Jonah and Scott, and 30 minutes of the podcast were removed to be aired as an outtakes at some point. Oh, and there’s plenty of cursing and NSFW content in this particular podcast, so be warned.

The news includes:

  • Starbreeze announces it’ll build a VR arcade venue in Los Angeles
  • Mighty No. 9 unexpectedly delayed by Comcept
  • Nintendo NX set to be new face of Nintendo with busy 2016 planned
  • Five Nights at Freddy’s World pulled from Steam

Let us know what you think.