Episode 632: Bobby Kotick Is Terrible

This week comments on the crapshow that is going on with most of the third party publishers. That, and some updates to games that people really care about.

The news includes:

  • Bethesda shows another brief tease of Starfield
  • Kotick reportedly says he’ll consider leaving if he can’t fix Activision Blizzard’s culture problems
  • Minecraft 1.18 ‘Caves and Cliffs Update’ Part Two is officially available on all platforms

Let us know what you think.

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Episode 566: NBA 2K20 Is AwfulEpisode 566: NBA 2K20 Is Awful

Jonah goes off on a virulent rant about NBA 2K20 and the decline of the series as a whole, while offering milder criticism of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. There’s no Gaming Flashbacks, but plenty of news.

The news items include:

  • Another leak points to new Tony Hawk game arriving later this year
  • Horizon Zero Dawn is coming to PC this summer
  • 2K returns to making NFL video games, but not a Madden competitor

Let us know what you think.

Xbox 360’s Fable 2: No Online Co-Op In BoxXbox 360’s Fable 2: No Online Co-Op In Box

Much like Kameo: Elements of Power, Fable 2 ships without online co-op mode on day-one. However, Kameo didn’t promise the co-op mode prior to the games release, or talk about it in their presentations and hype machine conferences.

How does that happen? It’s easy to promise a feature but words do not make games true. More than likely the online co-op was a bit more complicated or had some bugs that needed to be shaken out prior to shipping. Microsoft is talking about releasing a patch for the new co-op play on the first week or so of the game release.

There are two options: ship a product that’s buggy and deal with the online PR nightmare with bugs and day-one patches, or, ship it without the feature and promise it early in the launch phase of the game. Once the code is complete, game software has to go through the packing, duplication and shipping phase. A lot of last minute testing can get done in the time it takes to produce the boxed product.

Hopefully Microsoft is doing some last minute testing to make a more reliable presentation of online co-op which everyone can use. However if it releases with a bunch of bugs…

(Thanks, GameSpot)

Episode 293: Master of the HouseEpisode 293: Master of the House

This week sees the return of Paul Nowak from his holiday vacation. There’s plenty of news items and some reader feedback, but also the return of Gaming History as the crew checks out the failed portable console, the Game.com.

The news for this week includes:

  • Age of Empires Online won’t be seeing any more content
  • Sony patents tech to stop used games and rentals
  • Major Nelson posts countdown to E3 Expo 2013
  • PvP mode for Diablo IIIĀ delayed yet again
  • Telltale is in the very early stages of The Walking Dead Season 2

Finally, the Question of the Week is simple: “What did you do on your holiday break?”