Hey, that rhymes.
This week’s podcast checks out the non-E3 publisher direct shows, from Microsoft to Ubisoft. Of course, Starfield was the big reveal, and it did not disappoint. There was very little news thanks to the conferences, but there’s nearly two hours of show this time.
Let us know what games interested you.
This week has a very special guest, former IGN editor and current Dog and Thimble podcast host Hilary Goldstein, as he teams up with Paul to razz Jonah incessantly, as well as add a certain amount of NSFW spice to this week’s proceedings.
The news items include:
All this and Listener Feedback.
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SimCity was released in 1989, was originally called Micropolis and was designed by the infamous Will Wright. For those that don’t know Will Wright, its suffice to say he’s one of the most popular and influential game designers of our time. SimCity, TheSims, SimAnt, SimFarm and Spore are a few of his hits and TheSims has taken many records since its original release.
Wright had trouble finding a publisher for a game in which you couldn’t really “win or lose.” Turned down by Broderbund, Wright eventually pitched the idea to Jeff Braun of Maxis. Maxis agreed to publish Simcity as one of its first two games.
When near complete, Wright and Braun took the game back to Broderbund to clear the rights for the game. Broderbund executives Gary Carlston and Don Daglow saw how addicting the game could be and signed Maxis to a distribution deal. Four years after initial development, SimCity was released for the Amiga and Macintosh platforms, followed soon after by the IBM PC and Commodore 64. On January 10th 2008, the SimCity source code was released under the GPL license as… Micropolis!
The objective of the game is simple, build and design a city. Though the player could focus on building a highly efficient city with an ever growing populace, it was by no means required. In a sense, open ended, the player was free to design the city as they chose.
Included in the city building experience was the possibility of natural disasters such as flooding, tornadoes and more. Pre-designed scenarios were also included in the game such as the Boston 2010 nuclear meltdown, or mass coastal flooding of Rio de Janeiro of 2047 … even a Godzilla attack of Tokyo in 1961.
In the years to follow, the SimCity franchise would continue to expand with greater detail as SimCity 2000 (1993), SimCity 3000 (1999), SimCity 4 (2003) and a host of other “Sim” games and until the release of “The Sims” in 2000, the SimCity series was the best-selling line of games made by Maxis.
In Fall of 2008, EA will release the next child in the SimCity family, SimCity Creator for the Nintendo Wii and DS systems. And thus, history continues!
Electronic Arts has announced SimAnimals, a game where you play the godlike hand and control the lifestyle of over 60 animals. In the game you’ll play the role of a disembodied hand which moves around and life animals, pick flowers and interact with the environment much like a past Lionhead Studios game: Black and White.
EA’s not exactly being the most creative with this Wii and DS game based on the sounds of it so far, as it clones a lot of the features in Black and White, including how “animals react” when you treat them a specific way. However, we’ve not had this style of game on the Wii or DS, both very “touchy” in methodology.
Black and White had the touch sensitive control scheme using tactile feedback with the mouse implemented with Immersion technology. This brings the style of gameplay to a new level, but nothing we’ve heard thus far makes us think originality. Cute and cool, perhaps but it’s nothing new. Of course, who said it had to be new?
We know old gaming concepts sell well at this point!
Yeah, they did it as a Fathom event in Portland and I went… good stuff. Nice seeing what Fable and Avowed might look like when they come out.
The Internet is already talking about “No Man’s Skyrim”. I’m cautiously optimistic. It seems VERY ambitious. Between ship building, habitat building, space travel, trading, combat, a room full of sandwiches, it’s a lot…
Hi guys.
Thanks for this huge episode! Sadly i know nearly none of the games 🙁
I heared about SF6, but you skipped it 😀
You mentioned one Metroidvania game coming, which should look very good, but i did not get the name. It was very early in the episode … could you please tell me the name? I love Metroidvania games 🙂
I am playing the hell out of Diablo 4 … and the words i choose were not intended to describe it 🙂
And as always some Magic the Gathering. Nesides thsi the ummer is coming and so are the concerts and festivals i enjoy in staed of sitting at my pc or console … i need people around me at the moment -.-
Thanks for your effort and i promise i try to listen to the podcast more often and comment it … as i did the last years <3
Greetings from germany
Ralf