This week’s episode features the crew heavily reminiscing about videogames that first got them excited about the hobby, while Jordan Lund surprisingly takes a contrary opinion that shocks the other podcasters. In addition to videogame news, the Gaming History takes a look at the Nintendo 64DD.
This week’s news includes:
- Star Wars: The Old Republic going free-to-play in Fall
- Report: Next Xbox console will support Windows 8
- Paul Dini no longer penning Rocksteady Batman games
- 2K exec thinks photorealism is necessary for emotional games
- Borderlands 2 worldwide release will be “uncut“
This week’s Question of the Week, “When was the first time that you really got into video games?”
“Last time I checked, they’ve never had a console that’s been on the market for more than four or five years and we’ve committed to a ten year life cycle, so you do the math…,” he says. He goes on to state that the Xbox 360 won’t have a larger install base by the end of their 10-year plan has been completed, “unless things go really bad.”
Reportedly we’re going to see smaller 45 nanometer cell processors in 2009 which leads to similar cost savings as we saw in the Xbox 360 hardware. Cost savings appear on the manufacturing side, of course, along with less power consumed by the processor leading to less heat generated by the console.
Now that Activision has merged up with Blizzard all under Vivendi it’s time to consider what to do with all the additional overhead, management, internal studios and sheer amount of people working on projects within their organization. In other words, it’s time to trim the fat and get leaned out for the long haul.
Oh, I hope you edited out the fire alarm going off… awkward! Turns out it was just a bad sensor. All fixed now!
Jonah, congrats on the new PC!
@Star Wars: The Old Republic going free-to-play in Fall
I guess it’s safe to say that F2P changed how MMOs get marketed now. Heck, even WoW has a F2P portion.
As for an MMO being story driven …. Having a story is not bad; not having a good environment to keep the players busy while the new chapter of the story is written, however, is.
Very important the environment is …
@Next Xbox console will support Windows 8
Erm? So lemme guess, the XBox gets closer to being a PC? I can understand that, software wise: having a common software platform will have the benefit of lowering to zero the costs of porting games.
Now, as for the hardware being opened for upgrades – bad choice. Having uniformity in hardware makes things a bit easier in delivering a good quality game.
@2K exec thinks photorealism is necessary for emotional games
What an ass.
Books can be very emotional, yet there are hardly what I’d call ‘photorealism’ (same line of thought there, Paul). So, what can I say, he can take his opinion and shove it.
@Borderlands 2 worldwide release will be “uncut“
I’m pretty sure there are still some tiny kinks that need to be worked out, like, erm, laws …
Now I know for Australia they have the R18 rating, so that would not be an issue, but Germany?
@When was the first time that you really got into video games?
Tough question.
I started with the NES (well, a hardware clone of it, we’re still talking about the 90’s in Eastern Europe), loved playing games on it.
However it was only after I started modding AvP2 that I realized that I was hooked. That was in 2007.
I know it’s a chore, Jordan, but you can actually listen to a podcast once in a while!
Wew its been a while since I listened to ur podcasts,but I need updates XD so imma spare some time again and listen to ur podcasts (still the best!)……still downloading XD
Jonah. Congratulations on the new PC . Now enjoy watching as it’s hardware becomes outdated within a matter of weeks. It’s like watching a man decompose into a zombie.
@ Star Wars Free2Play
Subscription games go Free-to-Play (F2P) because they face tough competition from free games. Rather than shelling out monthly fees, you can just download a new free MMO and give it a go. I will deffinetly play it when it goes free and plan on loosing my interest well before reaching level 50.
An interesting case was an MMO called “Face of Mankind”. At the begining itt was F2P and was extreemely popular. Then it switched to sbscription and decemated it’s own user base. It went back to F2P recently but is now almost dead. Barely anyone plays it these days.
@XboxWindows8720Durangoo Mark IV
The new Xbox can be powered by hamsters for all I care. It’s the games that matter.
@2K exec thinks photorealism is necessary for emotional games
I got emotional over quite a few games in my time. I played a japanese story game (Kana Little Sister) which left an empty void in my heart for weeks. And I didn’t even cry after watching Titanic. Games don’t need photorealism to be emotional. They may need it to express proper facial features or something like that. But deffinetly not to convey emotion.
@”You will always remember your first one”
My first experience was at the age off 3 (19993). To expand a bit more on the situation in Eastern Europe at the time, the first games I played were “Super Mario Bros” and “Excitebikes” on SEGA GENESIS. A biscuit to anyone who spots what is wrong with that sentence. Just like Herr_Alien, I often dabled in Dandy (the NES clone). In 1996 my local area was graced with a number of Playstation Parlours (like an Internet cafe but with PS ones). You will never know true multiplayer untill you played Crash Team Race or Quake with 4 player multitap on a tiny TV. Golden times. That was the time when I really went hardcore. Although I never got my own console untill the age of 13.
Hi guys! sorry for the late feedback!
@Paul Dini no longer penning Rocksteady Batman games:
untill i listened to this episode, i had no idea of who was him, and now that i know, i had the same reaction as jordan: “AAAaaaawwww T-T”
@2K exec thinks photorealism is necessary for emotional games:
i was on the street when i heard this part for the 1st time, if i was in my room, cursewords would rain from my window!
emotions are emotions! they dont have a specific formula to be created! for crying out loud, i cried like a baby in the last episode of digimon tamers! i cried when kamina died in tengen toppa gurren lagann! (both animes) does this mean those were “fake” emotions? you used already as an example, but that text based game where the lil robot died made a revolution! THAT IS BONDING WITH A STORY! THAT IS GETTING EMOTIVELLY INVOLVED! what i was thinking before “did this guy never played a good game before? does he think games are just aim, shoot and see shit explode? is his digestive system backwards, because i can only see (listen) shit comming out of his mouth!” – sorry for the little outburst
@QOTW
counter-strike 1.5! i was 10yo, and when i saw that kind of fast paced (read CoD like) gameplay i was amazed! after that i discovered that Half-Life was cs’s core game i played that and even without a single word of english comming out of my mouth i loved it!!! it was hard, GOOD HARD!!! kkkkkk
and now, here i am, playing games that range from Battlefield 3 to Hearts of Iron III! =D
and to finish this feedback, a lil letter to Paul:
(to whom read, please do R. Lee Ermey’s voice, if possible, of course. If not, do a army sarge’s tough voice)
Dear Paul Nowak,
stop being a lazy bastard and go back working in this podcast you maggot! you’ll have to do it even if i have to come all the way from Brasil to your bedside and drag you to jonah’s house! a lil surgery is no reason to be down! you better be up in your feet soldier! otherwise! you’ll have to do pushups untill I’M TIRED OF YOU DOING THEM!
get well soon,
Hanz Krebs
I had already been playing games on a somewhat daily basis, but these were mostly free flash games on the internet. It wasn’t until I got to age 12 that I found out how awesome the games industry is.
As I do with most things, I did extensive research on which console and which games would suit me best before buying anything. I began discovering all these interesting games I had never even heard about and I finally came to the conclusion that the Wii was the best choice for a boy of my age.
I bought it for Christmas from my own money I had saved up, and with it I bought a copy of Twilight Princess and Super Smash Bros Brawl. Looking back, these were the perfect choices for me. Twilight Princess got me into action adventure (which is currently my favorite genre) and even into puzzles to a certain extent, and Super Smash Bros Brawl introduced me to the whole Nintendo family, making me try old and new games I would have never tried before. Once I had covered much of what Nintendo had to offer, I slowly transitioned into PC gaming, where I found plenty more games to satisfy my ever-increasing interest in video games.