Episode 357: Dan-tastic

Paul Nowak is on hiatus from the podcast, but former podcaster Dan Quick is stepping in to fill his shoes. This week’s Gaming Flashback is the expansion Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.

As for the news:

  • Noriega suing Activision over depiction in Call of Duty
  • The Sims 2 players get expansion-stuffed upgrade as EA ends support
  • Codemasters responds to GRID Autosport Boost Pack criticism (from Videogamer.com)
  • Ex-Call of Duty devs found brand new studio
  • Adam West playing himself in Lego Batman 3
  • Civilization Beyond Earth release date announced

All this and listener feedback.

0 thoughts on “Episode 357: Dan-tastic”

  1. Hi guys great episode, nice to hear Dan again 🙂

    @Noriega sues: Yeah I thought like Jordan that generally former Dictators are dead ones. He should just be happy to have made it to 80.

    @Sims 2 Ultimate Edition: My wife and I both got our CD versions redeemed for the digital Ultimate edition and I have to say I’m pretty happy to have access to all those packs and expansions I never bought. I still find myself spoiled for some mods, and I had to tinker with special settings to get a resolution other then 800×600. It is nice to play this game digitally and not have the hassle of some 20 cd’s to go through when wanting to install the game to a new computer. I don’t know if it’s nostalgia glasses or not but I swear the game looked better than what I started up in Ultimate Edition.

    I remember you mentioning in regards to Sims 2 not liking that your Sim ages while a neighbor doesn’t and you’d have to go to their lot to age them. For me it’s the inverse in what they do in Sims 3. I like to jump from lot to lot controlling multiple families and creating Dynasty Legacy families. I didn’t like in Sims 3 if I was playing a family and went to another house, only to find the first family had moved, split up or had a baby without me. This happened to my wife who was trying to get one sim with someone else and she went to another house and when she game back he was gone, he had moved out. So for me I like the “rabbit holes” or “hamster cages”. If you couldn’t tell I like gameplay that allows me to feel like a god controlling the lives of these mere digital blips on my computer.

    @Codemasters respond: Yeah people need to realize that giving money to companies promotes them to make more of what your buying. Vote with your wallets people, this is why I backed Pillars of Eternity, to show my support for the types of games I want to play.

    @Ex-Call of Duty found new studio to make more FPS like we need that. I don’t think people are going to want to play with a big headgear thing on their head. I’m sure they will make a game with Ninja mutant Zombie Nazi Robotic terrorists for all the kiddies to play. Okay bored now next topic

    @Adam West playing himself. I’ve been entertained by his role of being “himself” like in Family Guy, I appreciate when an actor embraces a role that made them famous, as opposed to being resentful about it.

    @Civ Beyond Earth: I am looking forward to playing this game, I’ll probably be Harmony since you get Sand worms, I look forward to assimilating Dan with the Mother Brain Flower.

    @Sony Remakes: Yeah I’m not sure about remakes for PS3, now if they remake PS1 or PS2 games that might interest me. Namely Suikoden, need more Suikoden.

    @Spore: “Install spore and see if I like it again” See that’s just an incorrect statement, that game is completely unlikable.

    @QotW: I think I am looking forward to Pillars of Eternity the most since it’s a spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate of which I want more of. I also am looking forward to Civ Beyond Earth as well for MP with my Polycast/craft friends. My family is looking forward to LittlebigPlant 3 and my wife wants Sims 4 but I’m very cautious of it, I didn’t like the “buy next expansion pack merry go round” with sims 2 and 3. I have to admit I am tempted by the Dragon Age Inquisition as well, I really enjoy the open world gameplay and not being handheld or railroaded from point A to Z. I like taking my time and savoring the game.

  2. Looks like Alphashard had a slow work day 😉 Good job with the comments!

    @Sims2 – I never played the game as I’m not that interested in endless titles and I also hate interior design and decoration. However, I saw online somewhere that the Sims2 are being given out for free to anyone who has an Origins account and enters a special code in there. I’m not sure if it includes all the expansion packs or not. I redeemed the code and maybe one day I’ll look into that or have my wife try it out.

    @Sony Remakes: I don’t think all the remakes are such a bad idea from a money making standpoint. They have the numbers and they probably see that a lot of people how didn’t own a PS3 jumped on the PS4 and they want to accommodate them by remaking some really great games (TLoU). As a PS3 owner since 2009, I managed to play through most of the recent hits so I don’t really care that much about those remakes.

    Obviously, I would prefer to have new titles to play, especially new IPs, but I’m so far behind with my backlog, I don’t mind the ‘drought’ so much. I just finished Bioshock Infinite so that says something. On the other hand, I understand I might be the minority and there are thousands of gamers hungry for new and exciting experiences. Well, 2015 is the year to look forward to.

    @QotW
    Looking at the list of fall releases I don’t think there’s anything I’m particularly excited about. Maybe the Infamous DLC. I enjoyed the game and I liked the Fetch character so this could be cool. There’s also NHL15 – the first PS4/XBone title in the series. I might give it a go. Far Cry 4 had an interesting demo at E3 and people seem to be excited about it. I haven’t played any of the Far Cry games but I’m not sure I want another open world game from Ubisoft just yet.

    By the way, Alphashard’s LittleBigPlant could be amazing 😉 What kind of plant are we talking about? Nuclear?

  3. Hey Pawel the Ultimate edition give away does include all expansions and stuff packs.

    I obviously did a typo and meant LittleBigPlanet 3.

  4. Hey Alpha.
    Sure I knew it was a typo but LittleBigPlant sounds so much cooler 🙂 Even though I really like platformers, I never got into LBP that much. I beat the Vita version but I didn’t spend endless hours playing user-generated levels.

    Thanks about the Sims tip.

Leave a Reply

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

Related Post

Australian PSN Restoration DelayedAustralian PSN Restoration Delayed

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.

Professor Bill Caelli told newspaper The Australian, “Why is it that in the IT industry enterprises certify themselves?” said Caelli, noting that PSN didn’t have the same restrictions, and added that the public has “no way of assessing the assurances given by the owners of the (PSN) system themselves”.

Reportedly, Australian privacy commissioner Timothy Pilgrim has been in contact with Sony, and has not judged yet whether Sony has given them enough information to restore PSN. His investigation will be an ongoing one as well, even after PSN is restored.

When it was discovered user information had been stolen during the PSN breach, the Australian federal government announced plans for a law forcing companies to disclose privacy breaches, although it was unclear when it might come into effect. Privacy minister Brendan O’Connor had stated:

“Sony isn’t alone. We’ve seen serious privacy-related incidents in recent months involving other large companies. All companies that collect customers’ personal information must ensure that the information is safe and secure from misuse.”

We’ll stay on this story as it develops.

Star Wars Galaxies Shutdown BacklashStar Wars Galaxies Shutdown Backlash

Despite the announced shutdown of Star Wars: Galaxies and the approaching new Star Wars-based MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, loyal subscribers don’t want Galaxies to end. They’ve begun a petition to try to convince Sony to let the MMO live on as a free-to-play MMO.

The petition asks Sony to convert the game to a ‘freemium’, microtransaction-based MMO, and that Sony consolidate players onto a smaller number of servers and facilitate character transfer to reduce operational costs in order to keep the game running. The petition has already gotten thousands signatures in a few days.

One of the petition leaders posted:

We are not your typical gamers.

We are not a commodity.

But if you look at the recent decision by Lucasarts to shut down Star Wars Galaxies, you might be inclined to think we are both of those things. Lucasarts thinks that we are a non-perishable commodity that can be shoved into a shipping crate and moved down the road to their next project. That is not the case. Not even close.

We are a vibrant community. We have seen our ups and downs, but we are only stronger because of it. We have endured all manner of broken promises and misleading “improvements” to this game, and throughout all of it, we have continued to build our community, and show support and loyalty to this great game. But we didn’t do it because of a game. We did it because of our community here.

(more…)

PlayStation 3’s Wireless Keyboard AttachmentPlayStation 3’s Wireless Keyboard Attachment

This is a prototype of the keypadSony’s done it, they’ve announced a wireless keyboard adapter to plug onto the stock PlayStation 3 controller. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of this, Microsoft pushed out a keyboard for their Xbox 360 controller last year to provide faster chat abilities and, overall, smooth the interface when needing to type.

Now, Sony’s following up with a few more advancements, “the wireless keyboard also features a touchpad mode to allow for mouse input. David Reeves, president of SCEE, said that this touchpad control mode may be used in future game development.” (kotaku)

Is there any chance our next-generation consoles will be more “PC like” out of the box? With these complex user interfaces featuring web browsers, online marketplaces and areas to enter your credit card information (and addresses) you’re really heading towards needing this type of interface. Now, they’re all starting to include chat and messenger services making it more important… if it catches on.

Perhaps the next console hitting the market will come with a keyboard as an in-the-box solution. Please note, the above image is Sony’s prototype image.