Episode 315: Titanfall T-Shirt Contest Continues

This week’s podcast is fairly heavy on the Xbox One news, but at least it makes for a themed podcast. Jordan expresses his fears at controllers that look at you, while QWOP and Surgeon Simulator 2013 are discussed.

This week’s news includes:

  • PS4 did have always on DRM, camera, but Sony changed it at E3
  • Report: Xbox One’s capabilities better than Microsoft expected
  • Report: Xbox One will be able to run Windows 8 apps
  • Xbox One getting Unity support to aid indie developers
  • Half-Life 3 rumors squashed by Surgeon Simulator 2013 dev
  • Star Citizen asset cost for ships “anywhere from $35,000 to $150,000”

The “Win a Titanfall T-shirt” contest continues. Merely answer, “What game at E3 impressed you the most?” to enter to win a large size tee.

0 thoughts on “Episode 315: Titanfall T-Shirt Contest Continues”

  1. @PS4 did have always on DRM, camera, but Sony changed it at E3
    😀 If this is true, then damn it, the customer still has some power. I guess not being the first to present the product is not entirely bad.

    @ Xbox One’s capabilities
    It’s easy to mess up specs. I mean the sales guy don’t know tech mumbo jumbo. So yeah …
    Now, I’d go and say that even at the initial estimated bandwidth the difference should not be that big.
    Read – write simultaneously? That’s a pretty good thing. In theory that can double the effectiveness of the hardware (at least in some instances), as opposed when having to do them sequentially.
    Still … PS4 looks a bit more attractive. Dunno why, maybe because of the initial fiasco of the XBox one.
    Now, on compatibility: wasn’t supposed Win 8 to play also XBox 360 games? Does this mean that XBOne will play 360 games?

    @Xbox One getting Unity support to aid indie developers
    Hmm … interesting. Still, XBLA was not all sunshine and rainbows:
    http://www.xblafans.com/jon-blow-and-team-meat-done-with-xbox-64672.html
    So what gives? Ok, the link above is from March, but still. If this isn’t confusing, I don’t know what is. Team Meat? Your reply on this recent development?

    @Star Citizen asset cost for ships “anywhere from $35,000 to $150,000”
    Holly f*ckin’ shit! No, just … no. Jonah has a very good point, it could be that those polygons won’t be visible at lower settings.
    Further more, I think that in the heat of the action, you probably won’t notice the extra details anyway.

  2. Hey! I missed last week’s episode so let’s get going now!

    First of all, Insomniac did not develop Infamous. It was Sucker Punch and they’re also doing Infamous: Second Son now. They’re still with Sony.

    @PS4 DRM – This is highly doubtful to me. Am I supposed to believe that a multi-billion dollar company changes their policy and the entire E3 presentation within a couple of hours because of what the competitor did? No way. Jack Tretton of Sony was a guest on Up At Noon on IGN this week and that’s basically what he said. That the presentation we saw at E3 was what it was always supposed to be. There were no changes made after Microsoft’s conference. The game sharing Youtube video, that’s a different story 😉

    @XBone capabilities – that’s a funny mistake to made but still might have happened. I don’t think all the technical stuff really matters to an ordinary customer. I still believe that the price and the unfavorable media coverage that Microsoft got after E3 will be the deciding factor. Those people who show more interest, like you and me, already decided which console they will go with. I’m not starting my Xbox adventure with this one.

    @XBone running Win8 apps – I wonder how long this will hold up. I can see people developing apps that somehow hack the console the way people accessed the OS on PS3 in the early days. The more closed the system is, the safer it is. That’s why I’m not a huge fan of all the social interaction that the new generation brings. We’ll see how this develops.

    @QWOP – Jonah! Play QWOP now! This game is what hell is all about. This could be an instrument of torture – “if you don’t run at least 10 meters you’re not getting your food!”. Parenting tip #436

    @E3 impressions – I’ve been going through the list of games and it’s really hard to choose. I’m going to focus on Sony games, since that’s the console I’m going for. Can I still say The Last of Us? 🙂 Technically, it was release AFTER E3 so it should count. I love this game and I’m afraid to read Jordan’s review… You OBVIOUSLY don’t get it 😛

    If I have to choose something in the future, I’m still very intrigued by Beyond: Two Souls. They showed some new stuff about this game and now I have no idea how it will pan out. I’m a little worried that Mr. Cage & co. want to do too much with this title. I loved Heavy Rain and I want to go back to this game some day and if the storytelling is as good in Beyond, it will be amazing.

    Most intriguing next-gen game? I think I’ll go for Infamous: Second Son. I really enjoyed the first two games, I platinumed both of them and it’s going to be interesting do see what they do with the franchise post-Cole.

    And also, in case you missed it, Jordan especially, since he has a Vita, Dead Nation is coming to the handheld! The game was an amazing PSN title. Sure, it’s another zombie apocalypse game, but it was so much fun. It had a co-op mode and you could go through the whole game in 2-3 hours if you made a speed run. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

    Now I’m wondering whether I should cash in my Bioshock Infinite contest victory to get a T-shirt or should I wait for some next-gen games since they will be region-free… 😉

Leave a Reply

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

Related Post

Xbox 360’s Fallout 3 Not Safe From PiratesXbox 360’s Fallout 3 Not Safe From Pirates

Just last week in our gaming podcast we were talking about how Gears of War 2 wasn’t going to make a PC debut because it has a bit of a problem with piracy. We were afraid this movement was going to cause game developers and publishers to stick with console’s “big can of DRM” over the PC for many future releases.

Turns out, Fallout 3 was stolen before it was announced as finished and has begun to show up on torrents around the Internet. This, of course, has lead folks to believe the leak took place at the manufacturing plant given the obvious circumstances behind the event. Sure, the title could have been leaked at the developers studio, but who would want to cause their products sales to suffer? Perhaps a hacker broke into the studio and stole the raw images?

There are plenty of possibilities, but the fact of the matter is this is the “DRM” console version of the game. It has been stolen and downloaded by thousands of people who are going to actually take the time to make it work on their ‘tweaked’ console. Just when we said “it’s too hard to hack the Xbox 360 and its games,” some pirate comes out and does it!

While the pirates set sea with the glorious booty that is Fallout 3, Bethesda’s staying hush about the incident for now. In odd timing, Ubisoft came out, prior to this event, talking in respect to Tom Clancy EndWar saying:

“To be honest, if PC wasn’t pirated to hell and back, there’d probably be a PC version coming out the same day as the other two.” (gamasutra)

Perhaps, the pirates want to bring some attention to the console market in terms of piracy so developers continue to produce PC titles? If nobody is safe, there will be no one safe-haven console to run to when pirates are stealing “potential sales.”

Episode 290: No One Listens ForeverEpisode 290: No One Listens Forever

No Paul this week, no Gaming Flashback this week – just Jonah, Dan and Jordan discussing a ton of news items where Jonah expresses shock that Jordan had never heard of No One Lives Forever.

The items this week include:

  • Wii U sells 1.2 games per console
  • BioWare was planning spy action title in 2009
  • Sony Santa Monica outline reasons for sticking with God of War franchise
  • Hitman Facebook app removed for off-color joke
  • Activision: Black Ops II grossed $1 billion in 15 Days
  • Spike VGA 2012: The Phantom Pain announced, probably MGS5

This week’s Question of the Week: “What’s the most offensive thing you’ve seen in a videogame?”

Konami Owns Musical Rhythm-Matching Game Patents?Konami Owns Musical Rhythm-Matching Game Patents?

Apparently Konami just realized Harmonix, MTV Networks and Viacom have made some game called Rock Band and want to take legal action. Konami has created some Japanese games involving karaoke called Karaoke Revolution. Why take legal action now?

Probably because Konami is working towards Rock Revolution, a title which puts together drums, vocals and guitar. How odd, don’t we have a game called Rock Band which has done that for awhile now? It’s much easier to be competitive in the market if you can squeeze your opponent out of the market by telling them you hold a patent on the entire concept…which you let slide for a year.

It seems a bit convenient to force a lawsuit, now, after Rock Band is proven successful and before you launch your own “clone.”

Its suit claims that Rock Band violates a series of US Patents registered in 2002 and 2003 relating to “simulated musical instruments” and “musical rhythm-matching game.” (gamespot)

Although the developers of Rock Band should have gone through some patents on the topic prior to make it (or maybe they did?), it seems a bit out of place to patent such a generic concept. As far as I know, Musical Chairs is also a musical rhythm-matching game but nobody put up any stink when Konami filed a patent for the same concept…