Episode 436: Wednesday From Now On

This week has a new recording date, Wednesday, so the crew can have more timely discussions about newly released games and more of the week’s news. Thanks to the Star Trek Convention, the podcast is still delayed a little.

This week’s news includes:

  • People buy PS4 Slim consoles before it’s announced
  • Rumor: Nintendo NX could be region-free
  • Devs can now publish Windows apps straight to Xbox One
  • Fallout 4 PS4 Mods not broken, but Sony hasn’t pushed it live yet

All this and Listener Feedback. We also have a new Question of the Week: “What is your favorite fan convention?”

0 thoughts on “Episode 436: Wednesday From Now On”

  1. The World of Warcraft community can be harsh if you don’t know what you’re doing, which is one reason why I haven’t played it for years now; it requires specific actions for certain events during raids for example, and you are often required to watch videos beforehand and have voice chat for choreography among your guild. Another reason for my absence from WoW is addition of unprecedented content requiring time to learn new functions, and it can take away from core gameplay, in my opinion. A lot of people like “Vanilla” WoW.

    While all FPS games are point and click based, Counter-Strike for example requires strategies for map positions except pubs. I recall trying to run around maps not obeying orders back when I was in a clan/guild, while the leader was barking at me.

    I’m anticipating Doom’s plain Deathmatch mode, unlike Team Deathmatch, so that I can be solo, but we don’t know when it’ll be released…

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

Mega Man 9, WiiWare, Retro Gamers Rejoyce!Mega Man 9, WiiWare, Retro Gamers Rejoyce!

It’s been confirmed, in Nintendo Power at least, that Mega Man 9 is officially going to be something you can download on the Wii console. The game is being developed by Ini Creates, a company of ex-capcom folks who are also responsible for Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX series.

Of course, this is a Capcom published game and is said to also be ‘multi-platform’ with an appearance being made on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.

At first, there was a fear the game would go “new school” and take advantage of all the Wii has to offer, but with the Virtual Console and all of its retro appeal they’ve decided to stick with an old school feel to the game. This is by far the best move we’ve heard, as a retro gamer at the target demographic age, I’m thrilled.

Mega Man 9 is going to reflect the older games, without an 8-bit graphical look of course, using the Wii remote sideways (presumably also using the retro classic controller) and is not said to use any of the motion sensing abilities of the Wii.

This will be the first title in the Mega Man series to offer a female robot opponent. Mega Man 9 will provide a new host of baddies, including:

  • Magma Man
  • Galaxy Man
  • Jewel Man
  • Concrete Man
  • Hornet Man
  • Plug Man
  • Tornado Man
  • Splash Woman

The inclusion of a female robot may be playing to the casual game demographic which is popular with the Wii and casual games in general. Or, they’re just looking for variety. End result is still retro awesomeness.

(Thanks, 1up)

Has Rare Lost Touch With The Gaming Industry?Has Rare Lost Touch With The Gaming Industry?

In an interesting interview this week at 1up.com, Peter Moore, now at Electronic Arts, believes the skillset that Rare holds is a bit dated for our gaming industry. Moore, best known in his role of VP at Microsoft in their Interactive Entertainment Business division, understands how great Rare and their games once were but seems to believe the industry has passed them by.

Looking at their latest Microsoft titles, mainly Perfect Dark Zero, Viva Pinata and Kameo: Elements of Power, it’s not hard to believe his statements as fact. None of the titles have blown away a market full of Grand Theft Autos, Halo’s and other top selling titles. None of their games hit the epic review scores of Bioshock or Crysis. It’s not all first person shooters are taking the big sales numbers; Spore was given rave reviews by online review sites (sans Amazon) and that’s a completely different style of game.

Popcap’s Peggle has had more fame and glory than some of the bigger titles from Rare, probably made with less money. Is Rare a dying breed of developers with no good direction to react to the changing ways of the game industry?

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