Episode 413: Baldur’s Gaming Podcast

Jonah survived the cold snap, and everything is okay – we think. There’s not much to this podcast except for the extensive discussions on completely unrelated topics.

The news this week includes:

  • The Chinese Room gearing up to announce a new game
  • “Who wouldn’t want to take on” Baldur’s Gate 3, says former Bioware writer
  • New rumor has Forza Motorsport 6 and Forza Horizon 3 coming to Windows 10
  • id Software: DOOM reboot single player campaign around 13 hours

Question of the Week: “What is your favorite FPS?”

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Episode 327: Not-Love LettersEpisode 327: Not-Love Letters

This week’s podcast has Jonah having a new job, while some really long Listener Feedback letters lengthen the podcast. In fact, several discussions between Jonah and Jordan were cut and will be in a near-future Outtakes episode.

This week is full of news as well, including:

  • Star Wars 1313 was to have starred Boba Fett after all
  • Shadow of the Eternals dev Precursor Games disbands
  • Techland: Dying Light isn’t another Dead Island
  • China lifts console ban, Microsoft collaborating with BesTV to make new console
  • Watch Dogs ships on two discs, requires install, 30 FPS cap on Xbox One and PS4

That plus the long Listener Feedback, and Jordan has an appeal to veteran listeners to write in.

Are Game Controllers Too Complicated?Are Game Controllers Too Complicated?

The same company that brought us the NES Advantage has proven the Wii control scheme isn’t as bad as critics speculated. The beauty of adding the “waggle” technology is limiting your button count to a reasonable level without overwhelming gamers.

We’re seeing casual gaming on the rise both in the press and in the public. Yet, each “next generation” console brings new features and functionality to the consoles, games and accessories. Since NES birthed the SNES we’ve seen button count increase on controllers.

Nintendo has usually been conservative on buttons, trying to work “shape” over sheer volume of buttons, barring the C button count on the N64 controller. Nintendo controllers change shape with each generation and they’ve evolved, not innovated, their way around with the Wii control scheme. Each function of the controller exists, on its own, in other products but nobody has built a fully functional controller in such a way for a game console until now.

Sony took pieces of this concept in their PS3 controller and its ability to detect “tilt.” Xbox 360 stuck with the beefy controller with lots of buttons and analog sticks. Not just a D-Pad but two analog sticks and a ton of buttons to press, some pressure sensitive as well. What of our next-generation console? Maybe a few new buttons?

Or, maybe a few new motions? Wii evolved the control scheme and Sony validated their decision, what’s next? Are the controllers just too damn complicated in today’s world? Or, perhaps limiting the buttons brings in more gamers, like Grandma and Grandpa, to play your console as well.

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