Episode 464: EA’s Star Wars Battlefront II plans

Since the podcast recording last Wednesday had audio issues and the news was, frankly, boring, the crew decided to record a new 464th episode on Easter Sunday, after some more interesting stuff was announced near the end of the week. That, and Scott expresses his enthusiasm for Thimbleweed Park, the spiritual successor to Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle, using a SCUMM-like interface.

This week’s news items include:

  • Diving into Project Scorpio’s backwards compatibility, 4K, VR, and 1080p support
  • Nintendo discontinues the NES Classic Edition
  • It looks like Star Wars: Battlefront II will ditch the Season Pass

All that and some Listener Feedback.

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Episode 330: Batman ProblemsEpisode 330: Batman Problems

This week’s episode has Jonah ranting about the shoddy QA in Batman: Arkham Origins, while Jordan admits he never used those Xbox Live cards that came free with some games. In the meantime, the Gaming Flashback is the classic Apple ][ game Bolo.

The news this week includes:

  • EA splits from Tiger Woods
  • Rumor: Xbox One SDK plagued by eleventh hours bugs
  • Apple sells 33.8m iPhones, 14.1m iPads in September quarter
  • Nvidia Shield update adds official PC streaming, console mode, more Android support
  • Fans trash Call of Duty: Ghosts booth at a games expo

No Question of the Week this week – just looking for Listener feedback.

Microsoft Says 60 Percent of Wii Fits Collect DustMicrosoft Says 60 Percent of Wii Fits Collect Dust

Microsoft is on the attack, saying Nintendo has done a great thing with their Wii product line but Microsoft has a bit more “respect” for the new gamers they’re bringing into the industry. Xbox Europe VP David Gosen launched the shot over Nintendo’s bow at the GameFest UK keynote.

“We’ve seen some research that says 60 percent of people who bought a Wii Fit play it once and don’t play it again. So we have to get the balance right, because what we are doing is bringing new consumers into the market for the first time in their lives sometimes—and we have to treat them with respect,” Gosen told attendees. (shacknews)

In translation, developers should be building games with hot gameplay not quirky gimmicks. Basically, he’s of the opinion that Microsoft’s working towards creative unique game play elements and not really concentrating on niche products that are only fun for a week.

Nintendo and others are developing games to take advantage of the Wii Fit board, so not all is lost. As a matter of fact, statistics being gathered by Nintendo’s competitor really don’t hold any weight with us until they’ve references the third party statistics gathering who handled the facts. Otherwise, it’s just PR speak attacking their competitor (although they say Wii isn’t really a competitor) with no real facts or values.

Episode 745: More and More LayoffsEpisode 745: More and More Layoffs

The guys discuss the week’s goings-on, including Diablo speedrun sleuths proving a 15-year world record was fake after reverse-engineering the game and failing to replicate the run in 2.2 billion possible randomized dungeons, Call of Duty’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover costing $90, Valve releasing the Team Fortress 2 source code, and a mystery Tony Hawk remaster mentioned by pro skater involved in the game.

For the first time in years, we have a Gaming History: The Civilization II Eternal War.

The news includes:

  • Netflix culls staff at Oxenfree developer Night School Studio
  • Marvel Rivals team hit by layoffs despite major launch success
  • Days Gone Remastered $10 PS5 upgrade not available for game redemptions via PS Plus

Let us know what you think.