Episode 436: Wednesday From Now On

This week has a new recording date, Wednesday, so the crew can have more timely discussions about newly released games and more of the week’s news. Thanks to the Star Trek Convention, the podcast is still delayed a little.

This week’s news includes:

  • People buy PS4 Slim consoles before it’s announced
  • Rumor: Nintendo NX could be region-free
  • Devs can now publish Windows apps straight to Xbox One
  • Fallout 4 PS4 Mods not broken, but Sony hasn’t pushed it live yet

All this and Listener Feedback. We also have a new Question of the Week: “What is your favorite fan convention?”

0 thoughts on “Episode 436: Wednesday From Now On”

  1. The World of Warcraft community can be harsh if you don’t know what you’re doing, which is one reason why I haven’t played it for years now; it requires specific actions for certain events during raids for example, and you are often required to watch videos beforehand and have voice chat for choreography among your guild. Another reason for my absence from WoW is addition of unprecedented content requiring time to learn new functions, and it can take away from core gameplay, in my opinion. A lot of people like “Vanilla” WoW.

    While all FPS games are point and click based, Counter-Strike for example requires strategies for map positions except pubs. I recall trying to run around maps not obeying orders back when I was in a clan/guild, while the leader was barking at me.

    I’m anticipating Doom’s plain Deathmatch mode, unlike Team Deathmatch, so that I can be solo, but we don’t know when it’ll be released…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.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

Related Post

DSi To Supplement Nintendo DS In The USDSi To Supplement Nintendo DS In The US

Unlike Japan, Nintendo has not invaded the entire home consumer market here in the United States. This leads them to believe there is room for both the DS and the DSi here in the United States. The DS will no doubt be a cheaper alternative to the DSi and the DSi isn’t going to make its way to the US for some time now (well into 2009 we hear).

Right now we’re still working through what the strategy’s going to be here. But we think that there’s huge untapped potential for the DS Lite. Because when you’ve got only one in every five households in the U.S., compared to one in every two in Japan, it says there’s potential.

You’ve seen some of the work we’ve done this year with celebrities, that we’re bringing a lot of new consumers in to the DS. So I think there’s opportunity for both of them to coexist for some period of time. (kotaku)

We all though the DS was taking over the market, apparently it’s going a long way to go. Nintendo probably feels the DSi may take some of the market share for the original hand held so they’re going to keep them both in the market, initially. No doubt, the DSi will eventually out-live the DS over time, but there is no reason to take the DS out of the US market until the market dominance dies off.

TD Gaming Podcast 91: Freedom of SpeechTD Gaming Podcast 91: Freedom of Speech

This weeks gaming podcast covers a bunch of great topics including a gaming flashback of Populous. We’re going to give your our down and dirty Mega Man 9 review from an older gamers perspective and cover some game news, including:

We discuss developers attempts to combat used games by including special first time buyer incentives including free DLC, updates, maps and features.

New Australian R18+ Proposal DraftedNew Australian R18+ Proposal Drafted

A new draft of the R18+ classification has been released by home minister Brendan O’Connor through the Australian Federal Government. The new guidelines closely match those in place for Australia’s film industry. The new R18+ rating removes restrictions on bad language, drug use and nudity; in contrast, the current guidelines forbade the classification of any adult-themed games.

O’Connor’s draft claims that the R18+ rating will allow “virtually no restrictions on the treatment of themes”, and violence in games “except where it offends against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that it should not be classified.” As far as sex, the draft says, “Sexual activity may be realistically simulated. The general rule is ‘simulation, yes – the real thing, no'”.

Of course, “standards of morality, decency and propriety” is still troublesomely subjective, while “simulation, yes, the real thing, no” is comicly inept for videogames, where everything is simulation. You may be able to tell when live actors are actually performing sexual acts, but when can you tell a videogame character is actually having sex?

O’Connor stated:

“The Gillard government wants to provide better guidance for parents and remove unsuitable material from children and teenagers. The introduction of an R18+ classification will help achieve that and will also bring Australia into line with comparable nations. This issue has been on the table for many years, without the necessary progress to make a change. We’ve recently seen several states publicly express their support for an adult only rating for games and I’m keen to reach a unanimous decision at the July meeting.”

Rather than banning games, why not punish stores for selling mature games to underage children? Or put the onus of raising children on the parents?