Episode 302: Just a Twosome

This week Jonah and Jordan go it alone without Paul, which is unfortunately since the Gaming Flashback is the classic Nintendo 64 title Paper Mario. It might be just as well as the events of the last week made the crew ramble on about the industry at length, making the post much longer than usual.

This week’s impressive news items:

  • John Riccitiello steps down as CEO of Electronic Arts
  • Firaxis announces Brave New World expansion for Civilization V
  • Will fans back an Alice 3 Kickstarter, asks American McGee
  • Lord British explains Shroud of the Avatar‘s offline gameplay and DRM
  • Facebook of Italian automobile company mentionsGran Turismo PS4″
  • Team Meat sitting out on developing for next-gen consoles

Lots of Reader Feedback, but no Question of the Week this week – just too much show.

0 thoughts on “Episode 302: Just a Twosome”

  1. @John Riccitiello steps down as CEO of Electronic Arts
    Hmm, no connection to Sim City? Me thinks not. Good point about EA no longer growing. Thing is, there is that much you can grow when all you have in mind is growing. Focus on the games, not on the slide shows for the board meetings.

    I agree with Jordan though, the people guilty for releasing unfinished games is the customers. Greedy EA understands signals like “I’m not giving you my moneyz”.

    @Will fans back an Alice 3 Kickstarter, asks American McGee
    Some folks enjoyed the game (not my cup of tea though, but I’m irrelevant), so I don’t think he’ll have any issues with raising the money.
    The problem is the IP. No amount of money he’ll raise from Kickstarter will get him the IP back. He’d better start working on something else. Keep the mad girl protagonist, keep the wacky universe. Ditch the names.

    @Team Meat sitting out on developing for next-gen consoles
    I agree with Jonah, the barrier of entry should be close to nil, even for the sake of diversity. But hey, I guess Ouya will just have a new developer shipping games for them …

  2. Though I wasn’t available to fill in for Paul on this episode as Jonah noted, I’m indeed excited for Brave New World nonetheless. You can be certain it is to be front and centre for discussion on the next episode of PolyCast, the Civilization series podcast that I lead and produce.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.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

Related Post

Whining Diablo 3 Fans Want Artistic Direction ChangeWhining Diablo 3 Fans Want Artistic Direction Change

We’ve waited years for a Diablo 3 announcement. Within days the Internet is afire with Diablo 3 news, theories, previews, screenshots and dialog about the next Blizzard Game. However, there are hardcore gamers that only see the Diablo cup as half full while the rest of us are simply excited to see gameplay footage.

What’s wrong with the upcoming franchise blockbuster? Apparently the art direction is making a few people upset because it’s too much like World of Warcraft. Holy crap, isn’t that a multi-million dollar hit MMORPG developed and maintained by none other than Blizzard?

“The main objective of this petition is to show Blizzard that there’s a significant number of players that dont agree with the current art style of the game, with this petition we hope to make Blizzard ear our voices, our opinions and our suggestions and we seriously want some changes in the artistic direction of the game so it could be more coherent and familiar with the Diablo universe.” (diablo 3 petition)

Imagine the developers and artist whom have worked, in secret, for years to bring gamers the next game in a series they’ve longed for? Not “thank you for making our dreams come true,” but “oh, c’mon, you can’t make the game I want?”

You must first understand the demographic of video game fans, especially those hardcore fans who will invest their (moms) time and money into the Diablo franchise. To many gamers the world actually revolves around them and all games should cater to their needs and desires.

The gameplay footage didn’t have enough “realistic world with realistic, dirty and muddy textures” and the game has too much “over-sized and exaggerated proportions like big shoulder guards.” The gameplay footage that we’ve seen is too clean, to “cartoony” and looks hand drawn rather than dark and eerie like the other Diablo games.

What? Is this a joke?

No, the internet gives voices to many folks, some folks whom we wish would stay silent. Instead, they start an online petition which will lead to no change, but alas, we can let them pretend.

Diablo 3 looks great, has a very nice direction and I trust that Blizzard will make it work. Blizzard has three key franchises and they work hard to perfect each one with the majority of gamers being satisfied customers.

(Thanks, actiontrip)

Episode 470: The Sims 4 Contest Part 2Episode 470: The Sims 4 Contest Part 2

The The Sims 4 contest is still going on this week, with the winner to be announced in Episode 471. The crew gets back to discussing news, but as is usual, it’s a light week in July.

This week’s news items include:

  • Starcraft Remastered is coming in August in 4K
  • Star Wars Battlefront 2 loot boxes spark pay-to-win fears
  • Only main player will progress in Far Cry 5 story
  • Destiny 2’s getting rid of random perk rolls for loot and the response is divided
  • Nintendo Switch Virtual Console will be the only way you can play certain Super Mario games

Again, The Sims 4 Contest is only eligible for US entrants.

PAX is Packed. Results of E3’s Dying?PAX is Packed. Results of E3’s Dying?

Some folks over at Kotaku ran into problems at the Penny Arcade Expo, it was packed with people and complications. Apparently the rooms are cramped with humans and bad acoustics, leaving some wondering what was going on at the Harmonix demonstration. Others sat in long lines, way ahead of time, to see games like Fallout but were turned away after a long wait.

It seems the lack of fans at E3 has caused people to go elsewhere, PAX for instance, to get their demo gaming fix. There is obviously a demand for this type of expo, if people could figure out how to balance the costs associated with holding such an event. Despite cramped space, long lands and epic disappointments being turned away, will people refuse to go next year?

Probably not. Perhaps they’ll expand to a bigger venue, eventually to be the new “E3” expo?