Episode 408: Star Wars Spoilers

It’s 2016, and the first podcast of the new year is now live. Be warned, there are Star Wars spoilers like Han Solo dying and the entire plot being a rehash of A New Hope, so don’t listen if you don’t want to have your The Force Awakens experience ruined.

This week’s podcast covers the following news:

  • Valve explains Steam issues on December 25
  • Star Wars Battlefront won’t be doing The Force Awakens or space battles content
  • New pachinko laws pushes SNK back to videogames

Question of the Week: “Which game do you really want to play in 2016.”

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Much like Kameo: Elements of Power, Fable 2 ships without online co-op mode on day-one. However, Kameo didn’t promise the co-op mode prior to the games release, or talk about it in their presentations and hype machine conferences.

How does that happen? It’s easy to promise a feature but words do not make games true. More than likely the online co-op was a bit more complicated or had some bugs that needed to be shaken out prior to shipping. Microsoft is talking about releasing a patch for the new co-op play on the first week or so of the game release.

There are two options: ship a product that’s buggy and deal with the online PR nightmare with bugs and day-one patches, or, ship it without the feature and promise it early in the launch phase of the game. Once the code is complete, game software has to go through the packing, duplication and shipping phase. A lot of last minute testing can get done in the time it takes to produce the boxed product.

Hopefully Microsoft is doing some last minute testing to make a more reliable presentation of online co-op which everyone can use. However if it releases with a bunch of bugs…

(Thanks, GameSpot)

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Microsoft has come out and validated some earlier rumors about Xbox 360 Avatar’s and their 3D dashboard design. Apparently, this is to build more of a community and bring a bit of the Mii-like influence from the Nintendo Wii to the 360 hardware.

It seems Microsoft is taking some of the concepts from the Nintendo Wii which were poorly implemented due to the lack of any real network community and bring them to live with a more integrated useful system. This proves Nintendo was on the right track but shows off their lack of integration and fear of bringing people together.

“Create, share, and have fun with all of your friends… but avatars are just the beginning. The new Xbox is tailored for the living room. Here we are at the community channel — instead of a list of friends, you actually see them.” (joystiq)

Nintendo’s cute little idea of Mii’s and sharing them with friends was fantastic, a great bullet list feature, but rather useless. Typing in friends codes gets old way too fast and there really isn’t anyway to vocally chat with people on your friends list anyway, so who cares?

Microsoft has proven to know a bit about the community space, has parental controls and a fairly reliable LIVE system for making it all happen. Although Nintendo should look at this with a bit of pride, given duplication is the best form of flattery, they could learn a few things about how to work a community into your console too!

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This episode was going to focus on the Toyko Game Show, but a massive leak of Grand Theft Auto 6 trumped all conversation.

Meanwhile, TJ’s mic still makes him sound like he’s in the bathroom.

The news includes:

  • Huge GTA 6 leak includes gameplay footage of robbery, Vice City locations, and two playable characters
  • Tokyo Game Show 2022 announcements

Let us know what you think.