Episode 422: Pop Culture

This week’s a lot of discussion of comic book movies, including the upcoming “Captain America: Civil War”. In fact, it dominates most of the podcast. However, there is some discussion of video games.

This week’s news includes:

  • Free money suddenly showed up in some people’s Steam accounts
  • “Obviously there’s going to be another Borderlands,” says Gearbox
  • Rumor: Nintendo NX to be officially revealed this or next week
  • Rumor: Xbox One upgrade under development at Microsoft

Question of the Week: “Would you buy a updated console like the PlayStation 4.5 or Xbox One and a Half?”

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Episode 298: Fireside PodcastEpisode 298: Fireside Podcast

This week’s podcast is rife with arguing between Jonah, Jordan and Paul regarding computer science in schools and have a long discussion about the future of the Wii U. In this episode, the earliest MMOFPS PlanetSide gets a Gaming Flashback.

As far as the news items for the week:

  • Obama: Games innovate technology, interest children in computer science
  • Destiny preorders at Best Buy reveal info about Bungie’s upcoming game
  • Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn beta begins the 25th February
  • Rumor: Sony will use Gaikai to stream PS3 games in PS4
  • Wii U sold around 50,000 units in US in January
  • Take 2 confirms acquiring WWE license

All this and Reader Feedback as well as the Question of the Week: “How important is backwards compatibility to you?”

Episode 359: Longtime ListenerEpisode 359: Longtime Listener

The podcast is back, albeit on a Saturday instead of the usual Friday. No Gaming Flashback or Gaming History, but a good chunk of news, though some of it only tenuously connected to videogaming.

The news this week includes:

  • T-Mobile now offers app that unlocks your smartphone
  • Analyst: Downloadable titles make up 92% of PC games market
  • Driveclub was delayed due to a ‘huge technical issue,’ says Yoshida
  • NHL 15 will be missing some features on Xbox One and PS4
  • YouTube subscription plan leaks: Offline play, no ads, 20 million songs

This week’s Question of the Week is based on the Minecraft convention scam from last week, which the podcast discusses, “Have you even attended a convention devoted to a game?”

Starcraft 2 Part Eins, Zwei and DreiStarcraft 2 Part Eins, Zwei and Drei

Nobody is perfect. When it comes to creating an epic story arc, awesome pre-rendered movies and a fully fleshed campaign Blizzard has done well. Now, Blizzard speaks of Starcraft 2 and the world shuts their mouth and listens to each and every word. What’s the word?

A Trilogy.

We’re not talking about the Lord of The Rings style trilogy, but three games with full stories which all end with the gamer being satisfied at the closure, not cliffhangers.

The three standalone games will be (says GameStooge):

  • Terrans – Wings of Liberty
  • Zerg – Heart of the Swarm
  • Protoss – Legacy of the Void

Gamers are probably thinking, “so, I can play multiplayer with only one race?” No! The campaign is split into three separete games, not the races and multiplayer features. Although, each title is sure to introduce something new to the game engine, Blizzard has said:

“Nothing changes for multiplayer or skirmish mode. All three races are fully implemented from the get go. Each campaign will feel like an epic story – not a cliffhanger into the next one. They will each have separate arcs that have a clear start, middle, end – and you will feel like you’ve really finished *something* at the end of each game. More content than we’d previously planned – many more Movies, Missions, etc.” (games.on.net)

From our perspective, it seems Blizzard is itching to release the multiplayer system to the world sooner than later, considering some countries use Starcraft as a professional league, but they don’t want to rush out fast to market campaigns just to satisfy this multiplayer desire.

Instead, they’re going to take their time, in usual Blizzard style, by releasing the game as they finish it… per races story. This should give us a less watered down storyline or having one or two races with a piss poor storyline while another has a kick ass storyline because it was done first.

End result? Multiplayer gamers will be happy in the end while those that play Starcraft for the story will need to wait for each game to be completed. We know Blizzards release schedule is “when it’s ready” so we can only imagine how long it will take to reach that third game in the trilogy.