This week’s podcast is a little late thanks to life interrupting, but better late than never. We discuss the Gaming Flashback, Robocop, and other weird tangeants that have nothing to do with videogames.
The news this week includes:
All this and Listener Feedback.
It’s tough playing an expansion when new updates have changed a few ways the system works. I’ve also had some troubles because most of my addons do not function in the Lich King beta. There are a few quests that have left people confused and screaming “how do I turn in the horse quest?” when the repeated response “press 1 to turn in quest!!”
Along with new terrain comes new questions and new solutions, many World of Warcraft gamers are used to the areas found in Azeroth and throughout much of Burning Crusades content. One of the fresh new experiences of an expansion is being able to play the game you love, but with new experiences not simply “more experience.”
It took me roughly fourty minutes to figure out how to get on my mount and ride off into the sunset. Because they’ve changed a bit about how the mount is placed in your inventory, instead being in the “pet” tab in your character profile; this new addition was a slight adjustment to my usual method of play.
Although information is growing on Lich King and its content you’ll find the general chat the best place to get answers as others have already experienced much of the introduction areas once or twice; some folks are on their third iteration of their best Death Knight.
Thus far, the introduction areas are a great way to exercise the powers of the Death Knight and best understand your abilities. You’ll find yourself gaining epic amounts of experience with ease, pushing 12,000 experience for a basic quest. When you’re at level 55, you’ll need a ton of experience to level up so the newbie areas tends to doll out tons of experience to give you a clue how the game mechanics.
Initially, you’ll probably be wondering what runes are, runic powers and what the talents the Death Knight holds under his/her black cape of doom.
Nintendo is seeing some great successes with their console — duh. What is the best way to provide evidence that Nintendo has a hit with their new little white console? Perhaps the bright blue eyes of id Software? Originally, it was said that id Software wasn’t really interested in developing games for the Wii, perhaps because it goes against all that id Software has developed their company towards since 1991?
id Software has always leaned toward bleeding edge content, pushing hardware to its limits and utilizing technology that has just hit the market. Nobody is surprised when they’re forced to upgrade their computers to play the latest id Software creation to its fullest extent. This is the price for being top dog in graphic engines, but now they’re changing their tune a bit.
Okay, it has to be said, is id Software contemplating a Wii game simply because of Nintendo’s success with the console? The core id Software audience isn’t grandma and grampa or the 10-year old kid next door. But, money talks. We’re not saying id Software is hurting for money although we’re not sure what keeps them floating given their last major title was yet another Quake game launched in 2005 with 2004’s DOOM 3 looking like an old man by now. Everyone is waiting on Rage which was announced in 2007 and still hasn’t been given a release date.
Perhaps id Software could use a little Wii to get their name back in the press, get bloggers talking and net them some fresh cash from a large pool of Wii owners looking for their next tennis game. Okay, nobody is going to believe they’d work on a silly Wii Sports clone but they’ve not announced, yet, what this “exclusive Wii” game will be. Carmack did say the Wii is “out of sync with the developments that are currently going on at id,” which suggests they’re going to be working on a new property or perhaps bring back an old property… Wolfenstein 3D, Commander Keen or maybe some Heretic action?
We’ll assume this upcoming id Software title won’t be 100% kid friendly even targeting a Wii platform. Are they going to develop a title for the Wii simply because they know it will be launched on a console with the largest install base in the world? Or, perhaps its a new found passion that Carmack has developed from sharing the Wii experience with his four-year old boy?
(Thanks, 1up)
A new draft of the R18+ classification has been released by home minister Brendan O’Connor through the Australian Federal Government. The new guidelines closely match those in place for Australia’s film industry. The new R18+ rating removes restrictions on bad language, drug use and nudity; in contrast, the current guidelines forbade the classification of any adult-themed games.
O’Connor’s draft claims that the R18+ rating will allow “virtually no restrictions on the treatment of themes”, and violence in games “except where it offends against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that it should not be classified.” As far as sex, the draft says, “Sexual activity may be realistically simulated. The general rule is ‘simulation, yes – the real thing, no'”.
Of course, “standards of morality, decency and propriety” is still troublesomely subjective, while “simulation, yes, the real thing, no” is comicly inept for videogames, where everything is simulation. You may be able to tell when live actors are actually performing sexual acts, but when can you tell a videogame character is actually having sex?
O’Connor stated:
“The Gillard government wants to provide better guidance for parents and remove unsuitable material from children and teenagers. The introduction of an R18+ classification will help achieve that and will also bring Australia into line with comparable nations. This issue has been on the table for many years, without the necessary progress to make a change. We’ve recently seen several states publicly express their support for an adult only rating for games and I’m keen to reach a unanimous decision at the July meeting.”
Rather than banning games, why not punish stores for selling mature games to underage children? Or put the onus of raising children on the parents?
Hi guys.
Thanks, as always, for the entertaining episode. Regarding PUBG: i like their approach to increase the performance, but they should have the player decide, if he wants this or if he wants to play on a server of “another” country. And for the mobile version (same as for the Fortnite mobile game): no! just no 🙂 FPS are PC only games for me … i even dont play FPS on a console .. i prefer mouse + keyboard … and for sure not on a 4 inch touchscreen 🙂
I loved playing WOW (and still will play it with the next expansion) but fishing was .. nar .. i did it to get some special fish or some achievments .. but not for fun 🙂
The fishing game for Dreamcast (Sega Bass Fishing) with the “real” fishing rod was fun 🙂
Thanks for the infos on Ys, i think i will give it a try.
@Jonah: a “Let´s play” of mass effect would be nice. A friend recommended me the series, and i bought all the games, but did not get into it so far 🙂
The easter offtopic: We have “kinder eggs” in germany. They are called “kid´s surprise” (dont know if it is tranlated correctly). The yellow plastic “egg” around the toy has changed, its “one” part right now … i think so that kids are not able to swallow one part of it? Don´t know 🙂 Never swallowd one of them as a kid and i had a lot of them, because my mum got me one, everytime she went shopping 🙂
And that you mentioned April fool: did you fell for one? 🙂
Have a nice week guys and hope to have a new episode soon 🙂
Greetings from germany,
Ralf