This week’s episode has bad audio, but at least it’s short, due to Jonah’s lingering laryngitis. Paul insists Homestar Runner hasn’t been good in 15 years, while Jonah talks about the NES classic bomb Athena.
This week’s news includes:
All this and Listener Feedback.
Although we’ve found Metacritic a userful resource for game reviews, many folks have gone on a user submission rampage to discredit games that haven’t even launched yet. Their first attack was on LittleBigPlanet followed by Resistance 2, now their hitting Gears of War 2.
While Gears of War 2 has a Metacritic score of 94/100 the user’s have reviewed it to be a 3.5 out of 10, with a bright red box around the user review due to its low nature we’re sure. Although users are free to give their own honest representation of the game from their perspective, Gears of War 2, as of the review dates, hasn’t been released yet – these reviews are bogus.
This style of attack was popularized in Spore, when Amazon got nailed with poor reviews of the game because Spore’s “Draconic” DRM made people angry. However, it’s more reasonable for people to voice their opinion on a known issue with a game; Gears of War 2 review spamming is just mean.
We use Metacritic as guidance when we do our gaming podcast to understand what games are rated in the industry, but we don’t use user reviews as our main guide. There are plenty of folks out there that may utilize these reviews in more seriousness because they may feel journalists reviews are tainted by advertisers or “the man” and want the common gamers opinion.
The common gamer cannot possibility be reviewing Gears of War 2 before the title has arrived. This is bogus. Metacritic has this to say:
“My advice for our faithful users is to focus your attention on the Metascore for this game and not the thousands of user votes, most of which have been submitted before said users have played the game. This is a gaming community, and if people want to stuff the ballot box, there’s not much I can do at this point. When we upgrade the registration requirements for participation on the site in the near future, this type of thing won’t happen. We’ll post the full legitimate user reviews upon the game’s release. As always, thanks for using the site.” (1up)
So, to those looking for holiday gaming gifts, keep this in mind while you start hunting down games you’ll want to buy.
Despite having multiple technical difficulties that were edited out of the podcast, Episode 247 is full of gaming discussion goodness, despite Paul’s constant declaration that companies are full of bullbleep.
This week’s gaming news includes:
This plus two reader mails and the Question of the Week, “What was the first multiplayer gaming you ever enjoyed?”
In this episode, Jonah complains about Origin and his inability to play Dragon Age: Origins, while a heated discussion between Jonah and Paul occurs over various topics, along with discussion of Frozen. Jordan discusses his son’s college tuitions as well. This week’s Gaming Flashback is the coin-op arcade game Wizard of Wor.
This week’s news items include:
This week’s Question of the Week: “Ever purchase new games for an unsupported console?”
I was soo looking forward to the new Silent Hill game… I’m a little upset but I guess this is how the industry is. It’s just unfortunate that it’s the gamers who tend to suffer when this type of stuff happens but as Paul likes to say… if you are not happy with the way they (developers/publishers) do things, stop supporting them. As for the discussion about older games… I sometimes use virtual machines to run older PC games but I have had a really hard time finding good ways to play my old console games short of reconnecting my old systems. I would love to see more support for emulator created and supported by portable console system like PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS that allows for downloading and playing of old titles in ROM format. I have a PS Vita and I only bought it to play PS One (I love Chrono Trigger) and PS Two games. As for old games I still play… Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy III, Zelda, Chrono Trigger… I couldn’t tell you which one it older… Good Episode, short and sweet.
Hello Guys.
Sorry that i did not comment your great podcast so frequently 🙁 I am moving to another city right now and my new Job takes a lot of time.
The most important thing: get well soon Jonah! (you sound terrible during the last podcasts, even if one of them was only a few seconds 😉 ).
I heard the last 4 or 5 episodes during the last few days and here are my questions to some questions of the week:
– snack during gaming –> salt sticks, because no fat or chocolate on the fingers 🙂
– future of old games –> i am into retro games, so i believe in the future of the old games and consoles. All the games, that came out during the last decade will fade very soon, or the 200. follow up will come out and nobody knows the original. But like you mentioned during the last episodes, there are still Atari 2600 Games or NES games, that people still want to play! I will stick with all my retro consoles. My newest console is an xbox360, and that only because of Street Fighter 4 … i am addicted to the street fighter series 🙂
– old game i still enjoy to play –> nearly all the NES titles, but especially Zelda, Metroid and Mega Man. These game DO NOT get old 🙂
Regarding to the topic of Kickstarter projects: i also pledged some projects, but most of the time, they were connected to some “Back to the future2 stuff (i am addicted to this trilogy as well 🙂 ). Since i only got Apple-Pc´s and i am not into pc-gaming i dont have a good opinion wheter it´s good or not good to pledge for a game.
And to the topic of getting Windows 10 for free …. like i said, i dont have a windows pc and i dont want any, the same reason Paul sticks with XP: my apple pcs do their work, no bluescreen, no problems, so why should i use a newer / different OS, when i am happy with my one?
I hope i wrote everything down, i wanted to say, and at least Paul asked for some love … ok here it is –> <3 …. i also tried to give him my Disney BluRay Codes, when he asked for them on FB, but german codes dont work in the US Disney Store 🙁
I hope to hear from you guys next week and the week after and the week after …. 🙂
Greetings from germany
Ralf
@Regiking got its act together. (Pokemon reference)
It’s a sensible idea. They gave away Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training for free a few months ago, so I can say that DS games are functional on the Wii U gamepad. If only they would have done this sooner. It seems to be that Nintendo is making some sound decisions lately. It’s as if someone gave Satoru Ivata a management guide book for his birthday. I am just concerned that this may be too little too late. Sega used to be a first party publisher too you know.
@Metal Gear Solid – Kojima = bread without butter.
I am going to argue with Paul here. I believe that one man’s vision can sell a game. I understand what Paul is saying. A huge title like MGS is produced by a lot of people. But the gaming industry’s perception is that Kojima is the one responsible for Metal Gear games. I just finished MGS3 and 4. It has Kojima Industries logo pasted everywhere. I almost forgot that Konami owns MGS. As as a side note, I am currently playing Zelda Skyward Sword. You can tell that Shigeru Miyamoto is less involved here, because the game is a re-hash of twilight princess. No shred of original idea whatsoever.
What I am interested in is why Kojima is leaving Konami? Is it him trying to take over the company? Is he trying to take ownership of the franchise? Is Konami afraid that Kojima is more popular than their entire company?
To be honest it’s very sad. First they kicked out David Hayter. Now Kojima is leaving. MGS will never be the same. The series might as well end now.
@QOTW
Hard to say. I have been too busy playing recent titles. I would have to say Morrowind. Some may consider the gameplay dated, but I love it nonetheless. No quick travel to ruin adventuring, no rag doll physics throwing quest items into hard to reach places. I still love it.