Episode 533: Muffled Audio

TJ’s mic is a strangely muffled this week, while the group anxiously await the release of the upcoming title Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

This week’s news includes:

  • Cuphead is coming to the Nintendo Switch, with Xbox Live support coming
  • The Outer Worlds and Control will launch on the Epic Store, not Steam
  • Cadence of Hyrule coming this Spring to Switch
  • Oculus Rift S promises higher resolutions for PC gaming without external sensors

Let us know what you think.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.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

Related Post

Episode 469: The Sims 4 Code GiveawayEpisode 469: The Sims 4 Code Giveaway

It’s Contest Time, as Gaming Podcast is giving away a swag bag that includes The Sims 4 and some videogame merch from E3. Most of the 87 minute podcast deals with more E3 talk, and 5 minutes spent on news items.

This week’s news includes:

  • Everything known about the Ataribox so far
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered standalone release confirmed
  • Gigantic launching in July, escapes Windows 10

Let us know what you thought of E3 this week in the comments.

(Must be a continental US resident to win the contest.)

Evolution of RPG’s – Gamers Don’t Want an End?Evolution of RPG’s – Gamers Don’t Want an End?

I remember a day when old RPG games had either a level cap or a definite ending. From Pool of Radiance to Secrets of the Silver Blades to Final Fantasy the game had a final boss or stage and often had some type of level cap. Today, gamers don’t want it to end, they’d rather have the option to wonder around aimlessly or completing minor quests in order to soak up every ounce of money they spent on the title.

linkNow even Bethesda is saying “we’ve learned our lesson” from the whiplash of ending their game title and capping levels. Gamers want to go back and re-try content they missed, they want to run side quests and talk to everyone in the world they want to grind themselves to über powerful levels and become a god in their fantasy world. Can you blame them?

You can’t really blame them for wanting to maximize the content, although it’s slightly more evolved than RPG’s of old. Perhaps it was World of Warcraft and other MMORPG’s that brought us to the stage in life where we all want to squeeze every last RPG dime out of the title. As a kid I wondered the world of Hyrule and covered every tile of graphical color, burned every bush, bombed every stone looking for all the content. However, even Zelda had an end with scrolling credits – you didn’t just land on a platform with your master sword and a dream.

Other titles have used level caps to limit you and draw you into the next release of the game. This was popular in the D&D world because the game is designed to target specific levels of difficulty. They may only allow you to gain level 10 because the enemies are no tougher than level 13, allowing the challenge to be good but not overwhelming. If they allow you to get to level 50 they’d have to design the game so all the enemies grow powerful along with you — that’s not always a desired result.

Final Fantasy is a popular franchise that typically allows you to grow infinitely powerful depending on how much time you want to spend repeat killing the same enemies. Gamers aren’t always into the grind, they just want to grind “enough” to make the challenges a little more do-able.

Today, however, with larger storage capacity, larger development teams and the desire to build more value into your gameplay experience titles have dozens of side quests and sub-plots that are totally optional. The result of so many sub-quests results in a player who is much more powerful at the end of those quests compared to a player who sticks to the narrow path of the main plot. So, games much grow dynamically challenging to keep the fun per dollar high.

Do you like your RPG’s to have a definite end and a high but capped level?

Episode 597: Demon’s XmasEpisode 597: Demon’s Xmas

2020 is coming to a close, and the crew talk about the absolute shitshow that Cyberpunk 2077 has been in the past few weeks. The Gaming Flashback this week is Demon’s Souls, which is a game that T.J. loves and hates. They also discuss how the PlayStation 5 is in trouble.

This week’s news items include:

  • Cyberpunk 2077 devs reportedly angry with management about unrealistic deadlines
  • Report finds PS5 scalpers are ‘threatening long-term health of the console’
  • Report: No More Heroes 1 and 2 are coming to PC

Comments are currently having technical issues. Will update when fixed.