Another late podcast, as Summer is in sight, and E3 looms ahead. Some minor audio issues with the podcast, but still the same podcast-y goodness we can expect from Paul and Jonah.
The news includes:
All that and Listener Feedback.
This week we’re flashing back to Star Wars, an arcade classic from 1983. We’re looking back at the history and forward progress of ArenaNet, co-founded by some Blizzard folks. In the news, we’re looking at:
John Riccitiello, EA’s CEO says the recession is a blessingWe also learned that Don’s got some issues with not sucking at Mass Effect.
Since the release of Peggle on February 2007, gamers around the world have caught on to the addictive casual game. Now those that didn’t download Peggle on Steam, Popcap.com or other electronic download site can buy at packed boxed version in retail outlets!
Peggle hits retail stores and the world will never be the same! You can download it for your ipod, on your PC and on your Macintosh but never before could you purchase it in a local store. Although, it seems, boxed casual games are the rarity, not the norm, the more outlets a developer like PopCap gets the better.
MSNBC listed Peggle in the top five most addicting games of all times, PC gamers couldn’t get enough and, eventually, Xbox Live gamers will have that same experience. If you’ve never played Peggle I suggest you run out and buy it when it arrives in retail stores… or just buy it online the way you could do for the last year and some change…
“The Grind”
With Wrath of the Lich King arriving last week it only made sense to jump into the new content “Lich King” style. Although we had initially reacted to the beta, playing the final content was much more fun with all of our guild and friends to play along.
It only took a few hours to get my new Death Knight to level-58 beyond the starting area and into the real world of Azeroth. Upon reaching the main city (Ogrammar as we’re horde) I picked up two new professions to make me a bit of dime: mining and skinning. This is where the beauty of the Death Knight fell apart…
A level-58 character has a few options open for exploration with the Burning Crusade content being the most desirable starting point. However, quickly it became apparent that my professions of mining and skinning were useless in Hellfire and other Burning Crusade areas. Why? Professions start with a value of 1. The last expansion requires your professions to be roughly 300 before you can utilize them.
My level-58 Death Knight has no experience in the ways of skinning and mining, what has he been doing all his life? Apparently killing innocent people in small villages throughout the Eastern Plaguelands. My anticipation with leveling my Death Knight died knowing I’d spend the next few days hunting mines and killing animals as if I where a level-10 toon.
There I was, a high level character trolling Crossroads and Thousand Needles hunting for copper and tin and skinning all the low level creatures I could find. Why didn’t Blizzard consider this when they allow you to create a level-55 character on day one? If we don’t go off and grind our way to a profession level of 300 we might as well not even pick professions at all.
I was not alone in these findings, along my path I found several Death Knights with skinning knives and mining tools looking for open opportunities to cut into the earth or the dead animals skins all around them. Sure, we can kill a cat in seconds flat but the “grind” is what we wanted to avoid, this is what characters spend their first twenty levels doing!
After three sessions of mind numbing grinding I’ve managed to reach a skill of 340 in skinning and coming upon 200 in mining. Mining is still too low for high level game content so I must whisk myself away to noobville every so often to catch a few mythril nodes and pray for a gold deposit along the way.
This may not be a bug in the Wrath of Lich King expansion but it sure is an annoying design flaw.
@Better Than Life
Above title is a reference to the popular UK TV series Red Dwarf. Better Than Life was a virtual reality headset that rendered anything that you ever dreamed off. However, it was banned because people using Better Than Life would spend all their time in the virtual world and eventually starve and die.
I don’t think VR will fail. Simply because too many big players are investing into it. Microsoft, Facebook, Apple and Sony are all bringing out a separate headset. And no-one can fault them. VR and AR have a lot of potential, especially outside video games.
My experience with AR on the 3DS was limited but I was impressed nonetheless. Seeing your tabletop transform into a fire breathing dragon was pretty cool and it’s sad Nintendo never followed up on this feature.
I think there is so much interest in VR and AR because it was a big sci-fi hook in the 90s. As Paul mentioned, there was the Lawnmower Man. There was also Johny Quest. Now, in 2015, the 90s kids have turned into working adults and are willing to shell out a lot of money for their childhood dreams. If there was ever a time for a VR revolution, it is now.
Will it be as successful as the mobile revolution? Don’t think so. My iPhone is with me wherever I go. But I don’t see taking Oculus Rift on the train. VR and AR devices will be anchored to your house and will probably be as revolutionary as a VHS player. Which is not a bad thing really.
@Thanks a lot Nintendo for region locking your products because I really don’t feel discriminated against because I live in Europe
Wow.That is one sweet Humble Bundle. If only the codes worked outside of US I would probably have more than 2 Wii U games. Thank you Nintendo for catering to ALL your customers.
On a different note, Paul raises a serious point. Since the creation of Humble Bundle and Steam sales I accumulated a lot of games on my Steam account. So far I have properly played maybe 15. Adding it to the countless PS2, PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, GBA, DS, 3DS, PSP, Wii and Wii U titles, in terms of playing new games I should be sorted for the next 50 years. And yet I keep buying more. It is turning from a habit into a disorder. But if a game costs £1, as my friend puts it, “I could skip out on that can of coke”. It’s strange. In 2005 here in UK it was almost impossible to find a game under £10. How things have changed.
@World of Warcraft: Broken Wings and Raging Tears
My stance on this topic is that whoever wants to see more content will look for it and therefore not fly. On the other hand, whoever wants to zoom past on his legendary mount “Dragon-Hoof-That-Was-Forged-From-My-Dad’s-Credit-Card”should be free to do so. I don’t see why WoW can’t have both.
Great show guys!
@VR/AR: I think the whole VR thing has been a long time coming, I think it’s been mostly that the hard ware wasn’t easy to use, as pointed out that Mobile phones are. Between clunky headsets, tvs requiring glasses and price tags. I’m still waiting for Holodecks personally. I do like what I have seen with the Altered reality hardware where a virtual bad guy can pop out through your device in your own environment.
@Oh What do you do with the funny little things, they go no wings: (that was reference to the Animated Hobbit movie) I can see why this has made many angry, you give they a great feature something they had been demanding for awhile. Then take it away, talk about pissing in their cornflakes and smiling about it. I remember a area just above Ironforge I could never get to because of the restriction of flying. I, like you Jonah, haven’t played WoW in years but being able to get to these hard to reach places needed flying and now they want to limit that. So you’ll have your taxi but I guess the fancy mounts are all grounded. I don’t think Blizzard can afford to give reasons for people to quit their servers. Several have already commented that they have stopped playing.
@FFXV: This is a series that really does need it’s Final iteration. They’ve gone into a direction I no longer want to follow. It’s a shame too cause it was one of my favorite series. I think it goes with my point when you two can’t keep the latest ones straight.