Episode 296: Still Need a Nurse

Jonah is still plagued, though this time he’s suffering laryngitis that accompanied the flu. However, even without Dan or a Gaming Flashback, there’s a ton of news to pour over.

This week’s news items include:

  • Notch earned $101M in 2012, may buy car
  • Sony teases “See the Future” event on 20th February
  • Rumor: PS4 hitting Europe in 2014, will have 8GB GDDR5
  • Feedback leads Kawata to “slightly revise” opinions on Resident Evil
  • Take-Two delays Grand Theft Auto V to September 17th
  • Source Code director signs on for Legendary Pictures’ Warcraft adaptation
  • Controversial torture interrogation from Splinter Cell: Black List removed
  • Rumor: Halo 3 finally hitting PC – on Steam?

All that plus Reader Feedback and the Question of the Week: “What remake would you like to see done?”

0 thoughts on “Episode 296: Still Need a Nurse”

  1. @Notch earned $101M in 2012, may buy car
    Good for him.

    @Sony teases “See the Future” event on 20th February
    It could also be some sort of TV or virtual reality device. But again, unless the announcement includes price drops, I’m not interested.

    @Rumor: PS4 hitting Europe in 2014, will have 8GB GDDR5
    Hmm. Dunno. Higher end PCs run on 8GB today, and a console should aim for the future. On the other hand, there isn’t too much using up RAM on a console except the game.
    I agree with Jonah though, the difference in RAM speed will produce only a small bump in performance. Common bottlenecks for games are at the CPU and GPU.

    @Feedback leads Kawata to “slightly revise” opinions on Resident Evil
    I say blame the movies for influencing the games.

    As for changing genres, anyone remembers Command & Conquer: Renegade? I loved the strategy games, I also loved Renegade. But apparently I was part of a minority.
    And if you think of it, other game featuring vehicular combat released after Renegade did enjoy success.
    So it seems that switching genres will impact sales, regardless of the quality of the end product. Therefore, be careful when making drastic changes. If possible, don’t make them.

    @Source Code director signs on for Legendary Pictures’ Warcraft adaptation
    Moon was good. Still, I foresee an action movie. Think of Prince of Persia.

    @Controversial torture interrogation from Splinter Cell: Black List removed
    Dunno. If I were to make a game about war, I’d make it as gritty as possible. War is like that. You’d play the game, feel awful about it.

    @Rumor: Halo 3 finally hitting PC – on Steam?
    Never was a Halo fan, so you know what? I hope it doesn’t sell. When you make exclusives, there’s always a gamble. Heck, Halo 4 is out for XBox, and just now Halo 3 comes up for PC?

    @QOTW
    Oh … this is difficult. There are plenty of NES games that I’d like to see re-made. Dunno, “Mission Impossible” I guess.

  2. @Kick it up a Notch

    Quite a success story. Contemporary Bill Gates. In my opinion he deserves it. Minecraft is possibly one of the most influential games of our time. If only the gaming industry had more people like Notch, we would have more innovative games.

    @Sony’s crystal ball event

    What a tempting ambitious name. Although it will probably be some fancy prototypes of some Star Trek tech that won’t see the light of day for another decade. Sony needs to grab attention. But I don’t think they have anything to back it up. Otherwise we would have heard about it already. Roll on 20th of feb and let me see Sony fail to prove me wrong.

    @PS4 hitting Europe in 2014

    And we get it later than anyone why? If Xbox comes out in 2013, this move will be the death of PS4 in Europe.

    @GTA delayed

    Nintendo does it all the time. I don’t see why someone else can’t. If it’s for the best of the game then I can wait. Besides, I am yet to play GTA4. Don’t know why everyone is bashing GTA these days. You don’t like GTA 4, you make a better game and then you can talk.

    @QOTW

    Too many. As long as it’s a proper remake. Not a Nintendo style remake of taking on new controls and charging full price i.e. Ocarina of Time 3DS. My pick would be Final Fantasy 7. I would go for Morrowind, but since it’s a PC game it already has fan made graphic updates which make it look like Skyrim.

Leave a Reply

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

Related Post

War On Video Game ExclusivesWar On Video Game Exclusives

Typically, we have “exclusive” fallout from the console war which forces the hand of the consumer to purchase all consoles to play all the games they love. Many hardcore gamers are into first person shooters like Halo and Gears of War but also like their Grand Theft Auto and Final Fantasy fixes. In years prior, you’d have to invest in Microsoft and Sony’s solutions to get your fix. Now things are changing.

With these third party developers playing neutral in the war on consoles, Microsoft and Sony are forced to rely on near “first-party” titles to keep their army strong. Metal Gear Solid is a Sony exclusive and Gears of War and Halo have been Microsoft’s hype babies for a year or so now. The problem? Many of these exclusive games are not divisions, subsidiaries or in any way under the wing of the console makers.

Nintendo holds exclusive rights to almost all their hard hitting titles. Mario, Link, Zelda, Samus Aran and all their mascot style characters are designed, developed and marketed under the name “Nintendo.” These characters are all part of Nintendo’s lineup of solid best selling titles including the Metroid, Zelda and Super Mario Bros. series and all their spin-offs. Nintendo has the power to re-implement their characters into games like Mario Party, Mario Kart, Links Crossbow, Metroid Prime, Metroid Pinball and a huge array of other first party titles.

Microsoft and Sony must continue to play nice with Konami, Bungie, and Epic Games to keep their exclusivity. What happens if one of these developers “betrays” their console and starts shipping multi-platform?

(more…)

Episode 640: Spacewar!Episode 640: Spacewar!

This week has a lot of followup to the entire situation with Activision/Blizzard, and also a lot of news items that weren’t a part of the official news feed. According desky.ca in addition, this week’s Gaming Flashback is recognized as the first computer game, Spacewar!

The news feed includes:

  • Microsoft is watching Activision/Blizzard to ensure ‘the right people’ are in charge when it takes over
  • Witcher 3 director and Cyberpunk 2077 veterans announce new studio and ‘AAA dark fantasy‘ RPG
  • Nintendo Switch Sports online play test registration now open
  • 3DS and Wii U eShop purchases end in March 2023
  • Focus Home Interactive to acquire Metal Slug Tactics dev Leikir Studio

Let us know what you think, now that the Comments section works again!

Castlevania Goes 3D on the Wii?Castlevania Goes 3D on the Wii?

The next big Wii title will be Castlevania and it’s going to be a 3D fighting game. Stop laughing, it’s not a joke, it’s what Nintendo Power is saying. Picture Street Fighter but with classic Castlevania characters and lots of smashing and bashing for victory.

“GoNintendo’s report from the mag hints at appearances from characters like Simon Belmont and Alucard, the use of sub-weapons like holy water and boomerangs, and (surprise!) motion controls.” (kotaku)

This is a creative direction for Konami to take, given their very inexperienced with fighting style games. They could build a team of experienced fighting style game developers, but why? What’s wrong with a classic side-scrolling style game using the WiiWare system like Mega Man 9?

Hopefully, Konami can pull off this fighter in a world where people do not seem to be as enthusiastic about fighting games especially on a system with the graphical power of the Wii. Well, it is rumored to have “motion controls.”

I’d love to see a remake of Simons Quest.