There are no news items in this podcast. Instead, it’s just post-E3 discussion. Everything is E3. What the crew liked, what the crew didn’t, and T.J.’s reports from doing the show floor. The episode is almost 2 hours long, so there was a lot to talk about.
Episode 541: E3 Reaction 2019
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Episode 671: Pre-XmasEpisode 671: Pre-Xmas
We have peaceniks in World of Warcraft, nude mods in Marvel’s Midnight Suns, and more Black Mesa, but the Game Awards overshadowed all that. Of course, no one cared about the winners — it was all about the commercials.
The news includes:
- Tekken 7 has sold over 10 million copies
- Indie dev suggests players “don’t buy” his game as the relationship with their publisher has “dissolved”
Let us know what you thought of the Game Awards.
Episode 688: July Is ComingEpisode 688: July Is Coming
The gang talks about Cities: Skylines 2, Microsoft and the FTC, and Biden’s high speed internet bill, as well as the following news:
- Baldur’s Gate 3 promises level 12 cap, new races, 22 new subclasses
- Minecraft’s devs exit Reddit
- Bobby Kotick says Switch successor will be closer to Xbox One & PS4 performance
- New Resident Evil 4 achievements spark speculation about upcoming DLC
All that and listener feedback.
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.
