Episode 222: Gorilla Love

This week is a big episode, as it is chock full of surprising news this week, as well as some long, long reader mail. If that weren’t enough, we take a look back at the IntelliVision game Maze-a-Tron, deal with too much love for Paul, and the mystery that is the popularity of gorillas.

This week’s news includes:

  • Electronic Arts buys Popcap Games
  • Microsoft: Only Master Chief in Halo from now on
  • PlayStation Vita dev costs closer to PSP
  • Netflix takes aim at usage based billing
  • Expert glitcher hired to clean up Modern Warfare 3’s multiplayer
  • Skyrim ‘less confusing’, not ‘more accessible

There’s no Gaming History this week, but the Question of the Week is: “What old game do you most want to see remade?” There’s no contest behind it, but you can always take heart in the fact that your question was probably the most awesome.

0 thoughts on “Episode 222: Gorilla Love”

  1. @Electronic Arts buys Popcap Games:
    Buying other companies/teams that have potential is sometimes easier (and more profitable) to do.
    Everybody does that: the “Narbacular Drop” team developed Portal after being hired by Valve.

    @Microsoft: Only Master Chief in Halo from now on:
    … so it’ll be a sort of Duke Nukem?
    Dunno about this … if the location/universe is compelling enough, you can use different protagonists (see STALKER).
    Then again, you have Serious Sam, Duke Nukem and Snake …

    @PlayStation Vita dev costs closer to PSP
    😛 yeah, they can’t afford to put a cell processor in it.
    Jonah, the rear touch pad can act as a universal button.

    @Netflix takes aim at usage based billing:
    The fault lies with ISPs that don’t want to improve their infrastructure. At some point, while the existing ISPs increase fees, I can see new ones, with a modern infrastructure, coming in and killing the existing ones.

    @Expert glitcher hired to clean up Modern Warfare 3?s multiplayer:
    It’s hard to find all glitches … some of them get discovered months after release.

    @QOTW:
    Dunno. Define old. If 2001 is old, then “Codename: Outbreak”. Its game mechanics were more advanced than the graphics it had, so I can see a remake of it having a bit of success.
    If you mean older than 2001, then I would go ahead and say none. The reason is that the game mechanics evolved in time, and older games may be a bit too bad in that department. As an example of that, see Doom => Doom 3.
    And yes, I am choosing only from FPS-es, because that’s what I like best.

  2. Only Master Chief – I’m glad about this decision. I bought Halo : Reach and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t the same as playing as Master Chief. Halo is very non-realistic, as I’m sure most people know, so when I played Reach and I found that defensive play was a better strategy, it took out some of the fun for me. I play on Legendary however so maybe the fact that I died easier made me more defensive. Nonetheless, I still think that playing as the last Spartan is really what makes the game.

    Vita – I am going to agree with Jonah about the rear touch-screen, seems unnecessary and will only drive the price up. However, it could be used in many more ways that may make the system a big hit.

    Netflix – If Netflix wants to make more money, good for them. They are a business and can do whatever they like with it. I can’t remember who said it but the existing customers will most likely look at the extra eight or nine dollars, shrug their shoulders, and pay the extra.

    Glitcher Hired for MW3 – I’m glad that he has extra time to find glitches in the Multiplayer maps. The past couple games (excluding Black Ops) have been riddled with hacks and glitches that nearly ruined the online experience. Modern Warfare 2 was probably the game that suffered the most from it, so its nice to see that Infinity Ward is trying to take care of this one better. With that said, they did lose about half their staff during the year that MW2 was out, so patches for exploits probably weren’t to easy to put out. Back to MW3, even though he will find some glitches, there will always be new ones popping up for the year that it is out.

    QOTW – @Herr Alien, I believe old was described as 1995 and older. I would like to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time remade. They did recently remake it, however the general consensus was that there wasn’t enough there to be a valid remake. I agree with that statement and I think it would be really nice to see this game done again, but better. I can always go back and play it on the SNES and still enjoy it, so I am not dying for a remake, but it would be nice.

  3. Hiya Fellas,

    First, for my buddy Paul:
    http://www.allowe.com/Larry/troubleshooting.htm#Cauldron

    Here it is, The Black Cauldron! I fully plan on committing several hours to enjoying this after I leave work. I’m sure my wife will understand. This is from Al Lowe’s website, and he was one of the game designers– so it’s legit! BTW Paul, Leonardo WAS the best turtle. So I can’t disagree with you on that!

    For the QOTW- It’s funny. When Jonah first asked the question of the week, I thought “ZELDA!”, buuuut Paul already suggested it. I guess I’d like see a remake of an old “point and click” game I used to play on the NES called, “Shadowgate”. I’m not really sure how I would like to see this done, but with today’s technology (possibly Kinect) it might be a cool idea.
    Or I’d like to see Rockstar do a remake of “The Oregon Trail”. That would be nothing short of ah-, wait for it, mazing!

Leave a Reply

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

Related Post

38 Studios Pulls EA and Blizzard Talent38 Studios Pulls EA and Blizzard Talent

Formerly Green Monster Games, 38 Studios is growing a large pool of talented folks for their MMO endeavor. First, we heard R.A. Salvatore (writer of the Dark Elf series) was heading over to work on a story, art direction by Todd McFarlane (creator of Spawn) and now Irena Pereira from Blizzard and a sound designer, Aubrey Hodges.

Hodges has done sound for games like Kings Quest, Quake and even Madden NFL. Pereira was a World of Warcraft interface designer which allows us to invision a bit about what 38 Studio’s MMO may look like from a user interaction perspective.

The MMO, currently titled Copernicus has a tentative launch date of 2010, which seems short for a full MMO design but they’ve been hard at work for roughly two years. Not too shabby a team for a privately held company founded by baseball star Curt Shilling.

It’s important to note Shilling is an avid gamer and loves massive multiplayer online games. What else does a man with a lot of money do as a side project? Fund a company based on the hobby he loves! If anyone knows the best directions and qualities of an MMO it should be an experienced team guided by someone with a passion for the game genre.

We’ll have to wait and see!

Read on for the full press release

(more…)

Episode 744: Even More Switch 2 StuffEpisode 744: Even More Switch 2 Stuff

The guys discuss a ton of topics off the cuff. They talk about the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct airing on April 2, the PSN crash, lots of negative Civilization 7 reactions, Phasmophobia hitting 22m total sales, PlayStation and Steam quietly removing shovelware, Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D remake selling and Dragon Quest 12 confirmed to still be in development.

Let us know what you think.

Gaming Podcast 194: Too Much Coffee Causes Genital HangnailsGaming Podcast 194: Too Much Coffee Causes Genital Hangnails

The longest title recorded on the books, let’s hope it fits! 🙂 This week we covered the gaming history for Adventures of Lolo and a bit about HAL Labratory all in honor of a new game we recently purchased to play with our kids: Kirby’s Epic Yarn. So far so good, our son is enjoying 2-player mode with us. This week we did an on-the-spot mini-review breakdown of Kirby’s Epic Yarn while hitting up some gaming news including:

Of course, a special thanks for Herr Alien and all his news posts this week, we got a bunch of them into the show. This week’s question o’ the week, what musician/group would you like to see featured in a video game and what genre would fit them?