This week, there’s only one news item, but that’s because Jonah Falcon returns from PAX East 2012 to discuss the games he managed to check out and even play, including Assassin’s Creed 3, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Civilization V: Gods & Kings, Max Payne 3, Spec Ops: The Line, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor, Borderlands 2, Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 3, Orcs Must Die! 2, Tera, Solitaire Blitz, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Mark of the Ninja and Code Hero.
The show does cover one news item:
- Zelnick regrets predicting THQ’s demise in six months
Finally, a new contest: win a free copy of Civilization V Special Edition on Steam. To win it, just state what your favorite civilization in history is and why. All that and Reader Feedback and a special surprise at the end!
The Japanese government has not allowed PlayStation Network to be activated for Japanese gamers yet due to security concerns, and now an expert is advising Australia to follow suit.
Microsoft Game Studio’s producer Phil Spencer said:
The famous Michael Pachter, industry analyst has been drawing some strong connections between Xbox 360 gamers and the Netflix subscriber base since 360 launched their Netflix addition. Our family has seen the same thing, we signed up for Netflix a few days after it arrived on the Xbox 360 firmware launch.
@Max Payne 3
Come on, it was a game launched somewhere in 2001. As for him popping pills, taking into account that that’s what he did to heal himself in the first two games. No wonder he became an addict.
@Zelnick regrets predicting THQ’s demise in six months
I’m pretty sure the first STALKER game was published by THQ; that’s not a sports game. I also think that Red Faction was also published by THQ. Just a couple of games that came into my mind, pointing out that Zelnick has a plenty of reasons to apologize.
@Aliens: Colonial Marines
A playable build for MP? Interesting. No HUD for the motion detector? Sounds ok, it will make it hard to beat the aliens, making them scary again.
As for generic MP, leave it to the modders …
@Code Hero
Really Paul, “Programmer, eww” ?!!
It sort of happens, you prick, that some of your listeners ARE programmers.
– regarding the feedback: I still live in Romania, and no, no confusion between Sidney – Australia and …. – Austria.
As for the F in GTFO, he did say the entire word.
@X-COM
X-Com: enemy unknown or UFO: enemy unknown was one of my favorite games of all times.
I’m not sure how I will like the cinematic scenes in the game but I guess the game had to have more to it than just a remake. Not so sure about them dropping the management of several bases in order of having you focus on one base only.
@Aliens
I like the lack of HUD for the motion detector, any excuse to get scared every time a alien jumps on you is a + on my book.
@Code Hero
Woo me likes, I am going to try this out, very interesting concept, thanks for letting me know about this.
@QOTW/contest
At first I thought you were asking about which civ game I liked the most hehe, had to replay the question a couple of times.
So my favorite civilization was Egypt, because of how ahead of time those people were. I love history and the more I read and studied about Egypt the more amazed I got. If you ever get the chance, check the Book of dead exposition, I think it tours around the world.
EDIT:
“Not so sure about them dropping the management of several bases and having you focus on one base only instead.”
Sorry for the double post, no edit button 🙂
Damn it, I didn’t get to listen to the podcast early as usual because I had a GCSE oral. Oh well, at least I’ll have Darkness II and Jonah’s address. Can I have Paul’s? 😛
Paul, does this mean that you’ll hate me when I become a programmer (at least I hope I will)? “Programmer, ew”, really?
Of all the games you mentioned, the only ones I’m excited about are Assassin’s Creed 3 and Orcs Must Die 2. I’ll keep an eye on Code Hero and see if it’s worth it too.
@QOTW: Seeing as I’ve already won a game, I won’t even enter this contest. Even if I did, my least favourite subject is history and my least favourite type of game is RTS (sorry Dan) so I wouldn’t even know what to say.
^At the beginning of the comment I’m referring to me losing out on the Magicka Steam code.
Which reminds me – will the person who won the Magicka code speak out?
Hey Jonah I won the Magicka code! I sent you an e-mail though the ‘contact us’ section did you not get it?
Hey DynamicJul.
You needn’t apologize on the RTS front, as Civ is TBS. 🙂
Sorry Dan, still not my type of game. My apologies for being an idiot on Civilization.
I have to try Civilization on multiplayer on of these days.
Its just that its a hell of a long game usually (I’m not a fan of scenerios or quick games). How do you play Civ online Dan? I remember that Civ III had a email based game.
No worries or apologies necessary, DJ.
jfgen: for CivIV, through Direct IP. For CivV, through Steam (as is ‘mandated’). I have not once played MP in CivIII, and only a few times with CivII as Hotseat.
Thank you for the PAX coverage. Uni exams soon. This podcast is the only thing that keeps me up to date on all the gaming news.
@Nintendo not as powerfull
I am not sure why no one ever mentions this, but my primary concern with Nintendo is their outdated user hostile console software. Recently I visited the Wii shop to find out that they have a special channel to fix Legend of Zelda: SS game saves. Something that is usually a tiny patch on the Xbox 360 requires its own space to work on the Wii. And of course not to mention the fact that online multiplayer on the Wii is almost non-existent. In fact, unless you have siblings or friends that live nearby, you might as well forget about Wii multiplayer alltogether.
The friend code system is dreadfull. To get some friends on my 3DS I had to join a special forum on-line. To talk to my 3DS friends I have to use Skype. Nintendo might as well start selling a laptop as a 3DS peripheral.
I am not raging about Nintendo. I am confident they will make great games in the future. It’s Nintendo. They don’t need fancy graphics or processing power. They have their own kind of magic and I am willing to believe in it. But they could make our experience at using their console a bit more pleasent/simple.
@QOTW
My favourite civilization has to be the ancient Greeks. They had the most awesome religion. The whole Olympic Gods thing was amazing. Like a predecessor of the DC comics. And not to mention that they nearly took over the whole world at some point.
Hey guys I just won the copy of magicka, and just incase you didnt get my e-mail I thought I’d leave it in the comments as well.
I guess listening to the podcast first thing in the mourning paid off haha. Ive been listening to you guys forever but have never written in. I just want to take a second to first say thank you very much, and that I love the podcast. I look forward to listening to you guys first thing in the mourning when I come into work. So this mourning I was sitting in my cubicle, drinking my mourning coffee, working, and listening to the cast, and when I heard you reading the code I franticly grabbed a pen and paper and scribbled down the code, then grabbed my phone, and got on my remote PC app, and pulled up steam and typed it in and was so surprised when it worked! I never win anything!
So once again thank you so much. I’ve been playing the game on steam and am loving it. This week has been pretty rough in my personal life. I work alone in a cubicle all day and I listen to a few podcasts through out the week, but I always look forward to yours the most. And winning this really made my day, week, and month so seriously thank you.
You guys have actually inspired me not too long ago to start a podcast of my own. (dont worry im not looking for a plug or anything feel free to skip over this part if you read this on the air) but its a gaming podcast focusing on PC gaming but we still discuss news and games from all systems. I started it a few weeks ago with a few friends and were just starting out. But from listening to you guys it really inspired me to do something like it. But we just gear it for PCs cause thats what myself and my friends primarily play on. Were located at gam3face.net (forgive the site design were still working in it haha) if you want to take a gander. Again, not looking for a plug I just wanted to say thanks for giving me the motivation to start something that in really enjoy doing, because of how much I’ve enjoyed your podcast.
And I know Paul likes hate mail, but I just wanted to say I love you Paul, although I dont always agree with your opinions on some games you always add a colorful flavor to the podcast every week and really make it that much more fun to listen to. And same goes for the entire cast.
I apologize for the length of this but once again thank you. It maybe just a small action RPG on steam but winning this really made my week and meant a lot.
Keep up the good work, one of the best if not THE best, well rounded podcasts out there period. Love you guys.
Sincerely your fan,
Danny aka Kizer (Ikizer on steam)
glad your trip went ok =]
@Assassins Creed III
i have not yet played any of the previous games but i’m saving money for them.
@Civ V: Gods and Kings
new game variable will mean new strategies and new ways of playing it. if i win this contest, i will definatelly (please feel free to correct my grammar) buy this exp pack/DLC
@Steel Battalion
too bad i dont have a xbox or kinect, but if win8 comes with the legendary xbox360 with it i will definatelly buy it (of course, if win8 supports kinect)
@Borderlands 2
nice… i wonder how will the dual weild work in this game. looking forward to this game too =]
@orcs must die 2
yey!!! coop!!!!!
@bf3 close quarters
Y U NO TALK ABOUT new BF3 DLC???
jk, i know it is not one of your priorities but as an fps fan i could not let this pass
@Civ V contest
the japanese civilization. since the early 1000’s ’till now a days
a society based on the honor code. honor in fight, honor in living and honor in dying. the total discipline in the training to fight for the shogun, the respect for the elder, and the respect for their tradition.
bye guys, till next week!
Sorry for the second post but since you may be interested:
@UK GAME
Up untill recently I didn’t even know that Gamestation and Game were the same company. They seemed to act like two totally seperate entities. Reagrdless, they are both feeling the sting of the GAME crysis. My local Gamestation is low on sypply of games. I’ve been going there for 4 years and it seems to be very empty at the moment. Some of the shelves are stocked with old PS2 games I have never even heard off. They seem to be pulling out everything they had at the back just to stock shelves. Which is not so bad, as recently I grabbed Eternal Darkness and Luigi’s Mansion for 49 penece each. Not sure if this applies to the rest of UK, but I overheard the staff saying that they are hoping that soon they will be able to stock stuff that people want again. Implying that they are not getting any new stock. So it sounds a bit serious. Just hope they won’t fold, or I will have to Amazon my games for the rest of my life.