Episode 339: Defective Ears

This week’s episode is chock full of very industry-specific news, dealing with sales and numbers and other stuff that would bore Paul.

The news includes:

  • Microsoft acquires Gears of War IP from Epic
  • Sony issues invites hinting at ‘Slimmest’ product launch
  • Apple sells record number of iPhones, iPads
  • Surface and Xbox One hits with buyers during the holidays
  • Japanese newspaper says Nintendo is about to unveil its approach to mobile development
  • Kerbal Space Program lands on various schools’ curriculum
  • Sony’s credit rating cut to “Junk”

Sadly, no reader mail this week.

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Starcraft 2 Part Eins, Zwei and DreiStarcraft 2 Part Eins, Zwei and Drei

Nobody is perfect. When it comes to creating an epic story arc, awesome pre-rendered movies and a fully fleshed campaign Blizzard has done well. Now, Blizzard speaks of Starcraft 2 and the world shuts their mouth and listens to each and every word. What’s the word?

A Trilogy.

We’re not talking about the Lord of The Rings style trilogy, but three games with full stories which all end with the gamer being satisfied at the closure, not cliffhangers.

The three standalone games will be (says GameStooge):

  • Terrans – Wings of Liberty
  • Zerg – Heart of the Swarm
  • Protoss – Legacy of the Void

Gamers are probably thinking, “so, I can play multiplayer with only one race?” No! The campaign is split into three separete games, not the races and multiplayer features. Although, each title is sure to introduce something new to the game engine, Blizzard has said:

“Nothing changes for multiplayer or skirmish mode. All three races are fully implemented from the get go. Each campaign will feel like an epic story – not a cliffhanger into the next one. They will each have separate arcs that have a clear start, middle, end – and you will feel like you’ve really finished *something* at the end of each game. More content than we’d previously planned – many more Movies, Missions, etc.” (games.on.net)

From our perspective, it seems Blizzard is itching to release the multiplayer system to the world sooner than later, considering some countries use Starcraft as a professional league, but they don’t want to rush out fast to market campaigns just to satisfy this multiplayer desire.

Instead, they’re going to take their time, in usual Blizzard style, by releasing the game as they finish it… per races story. This should give us a less watered down storyline or having one or two races with a piss poor storyline while another has a kick ass storyline because it was done first.

End result? Multiplayer gamers will be happy in the end while those that play Starcraft for the story will need to wait for each game to be completed. We know Blizzards release schedule is “when it’s ready” so we can only imagine how long it will take to reach that third game in the trilogy.

Episode 265: See You After E3Episode 265: See You After E3

This episode is a little late due to the holiday, but at least it’ll give everyone something to listen to when there’s no episode next week due to Jonah Falcon and Paul S. Nowak heading to E3.

In the meantime, the gang covers the following news:

  • THQ: “Linear is not a dirty word for an FPS”
  • Pachter decries on-disc DLC as “just plain greed”
  • Crysis 2 returns to Steam
  • The Old Republic still has one of the biggest dev teams in industry

Along with the usual Reader Feedback, the crew this time asks the readers to ask some questions, instead of the other way around. Let us know what you want to know.

Episode 650: Walking SimulatorsEpisode 650: Walking Simulators

This week’s episode looks at the progenitor of all walking simulator games, Dear Esther, in this week’s Gaming Flashback. They also discuss the upcoming Game Pass games for May as well as voice masking on the Playstation 3 and Xbox. In addition, Scott discusses Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, the spinoff of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes that was crowdfunded on Kickstarter.

The news includes:

  • EA Sports officially ends FIFA partnership after 30 years of games
  • Starfield and Redfall have been delayed
  • Sony reportedly “will not approve any statements” from PlayStation studios on reproductive rights
  • Alan Wake developer Remedy provides update on five projects in pipeline

Let us know what you think.