Episode 417: One In, One Out

This week is a celebration of the 250th episode of the Videogame Roundtable, and Dan Quick is back for the special edition, joining fellow PolyCaster Scott Dirk. However, TJ Denzer was at the bowling alley, so he wasn’t available. There’s a lot of Cards Against Humanity and Town of Salem talk, as well as a lot of long-missed byplay between Dan and Jonah Falcon. Unfortunately, Paul Nowak couldn’t make it.

The news this week includes:

  • Bethesda working on a “bleeding-edge” RPG
  • Diablo II gets first official patch since 2011
  • Forza Motorsport 6: Apex won’t crossplay with Xbox One version
  • Nintendo explains why only the New 3DS plays SNES games
  • U.S. DoJ increases hostility towards Apple in latest court filing

Let us know what you think.

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Gaming Podcast 114: The Paz CastGaming Podcast 114: The Paz Cast

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If you’re looking to enter the World fo Warcraft writing contest, check it out here. Thanks for the write-in’s and, as always, we look forward to hearing more. Question of the week: Would you buy a game that sold you half of other titles in content and made you pay for the rest later in DLC form?

ID Software, Not Just One Game AnymoreID Software, Not Just One Game Anymore

As Bob Dylan once wrote, “The times they are a-changin'” and id Software may be ready to change with these times. They’re talking at Quake Con about both DOOM 4 and their next title Rage (a first person shooter car driving game) both utilizing the same engine, the Tech 5 engine, and being developed simultaneously.

Now, this doesn’t mean you’ll have dual release games but it shows that id Software is ready to work on more than a single project at the same time, a big step for them. Although they’re usually working a big engine while finishing up a title to run on such an engine, they’ve got two titles in the works. This is very unlike the little FPS company but it shows they’re ready to meet the challenge of a larger industry.

When the original DOOM arrived there was nothing to compete against them and through the years and into Quake their competition was light years behind. Developers like Epic Games, Bungie and other first-person-shooter genre developers have proven themselves in the industry with many titles and sequels while id releases, seemingly, one game every five years.

For a company with only one or two franchise titles they do take a long time to release another game. This may be due to their engine licensing, no longer under the “Quake” engine name and sticking with its own independant naming convention like ID Tech 4 and ID Tech 5, they’re showing us the company is about engine design seperate from any demos or game prototypes they provide to show off the engine.

To many gamers DOOM 3 was more of a prototype to show people how far graphics have advanced in the last twenty years. Many folks were excited to play but grew bored when they realized it was very much like DOOM 2 but with a graphic revamp. Nostalgia only goes so far before you realize the story and depth behind games like Half-Life, Unreal and Halo have far exceeded a extreme graphical FPS gaming.

It’s time for id to grow from their roots and expand into many game genre’s and build out new independent properties (like Rage) to show the industry they’re not just a one-hit wonder with a huge fan base.

But, you can’t argue with a huge fan base. They’ve got a full conference to show off their stuff, not even Electronic Arts has that!

(Thanks, 1up)

Yet Another PSP Re-Design?Yet Another PSP Re-Design?

It seems as if this is the third time, but SCEE has announced a new PSP design with eight different bundles being offered. This fall we should see the PSP-3000, which sounds much like a fake Acme cartoon toy, but it’s for reals.

This version will have a built-in microphone, a redesigned (brighter) LCD screen with out-of-the-box Skype abilities. The Swiss Army knife of hand-helds will keep the current outward design with inner tweaks and each bundle will cause 199 Euro.

Is the market really looking for a re-design with these features or is this Sony’s way of competing with “color DS lite” designs. Nintendo re-releases the same product with brighter colors a few years after its release while Sony seems to push a few new hardware features or enhancements.

The end result, DS still beats all expectations in unit sales month after month.

(Thanks, Kotaku)