Episode 502: Spring Flu

Jonah suffers from spring flu this episode, which you can probably here in his voice. There’s a long discussion about isometric roleplaying games, and for the first time in a while, there’s no Gaming Flashback.

This week’s news items include:

  • id Software partnering with Mad Max dev Avalanche Studios to develop Rage 2
  • Radical Heights developer Boss Key Games shuts down
  • Platinum claims it will “turn the action genre on its head”
  • Redditor leaks potential Star Fox racing spin-off from Retro Studios

Let us know what you think.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

TD Gaming Podcast 93: The M.I.T GangTD Gaming Podcast 93: The M.I.T Gang

This weeks Gaming Podcast comes out a bit early due to some travel plans and an upcoming trip to Popcap’s Bejeweled Twist launch party. This week in the news we took a look at:

We also take a look back at Pitfall! and cover yet another DRM issue on our soapbox, asking the question, is online gaming the DRM of the future? Our history segment does a bit of history on Popcap games.

Our NFS: Carbon and Saints Row contest has ended, the gang names are in, and we’re giving away the games to the winner. Next, we’re going to give away Project Gotham Racing 4.

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.

Diablo 3 Content Creation PhaseDiablo 3 Content Creation Phase

Now that Blizzard feels their engine is solid, it’s time to move on to creating content for the full game. Jay Wilson, Diablo 3‘s lead designer, says the game engine is in an advance stage of completion and much of the art team has moved onto Act 2. Don’t read into that, he said game engine.

Blizzard is obviously not hurting for money, given the success of World of Warcraft and they’ve always taken their time with projects to make them solid products. Blizzard’s name is on the line and they’re brand consists of three major franchises: Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo. When you produce so few games you’re expected to do them perfectly.

How do they do it? As Wilson says, “If we haven’t rebuilt something five times it really doesn’t deserve to be shipped. That’s pretty much our policy.” (eurogamer) While a game engine is the foundation for a great game experience, the content is king. Blizzard is deep in the mire of content production so, although the engine might be solid, the final product is probably still far from complete.

End result, expect a high quality product once again from Blizzard.