Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 338

Bioshock Infinite, Toilet Tossing, Sentinels of The Multiverse, Our PAX 2013 Impressions, Post-Credit Bioshock Infinite Spoiler Section With Guest Jeff Cannata, Your Emails and More!

This week Shawn, Elysium and Julian have a non-spoiler discussion of Bioshock Infinite. They also share their PAX 2013 thoughts and impressions! After the credits, Shawn, Cory and Jeff Cannata have a spoiler discussion about Bioshock Infinite.

To contact us, email [email protected]! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind. You can even send a 30 second audio question or comment (MP3 format please) if you're so inclined.

Chairman_Mao's Timestamps
00.01.35 McChuck's LAN cafe Birthday Party & Half-Life 2 multiplayer
00.04.01 Rabbit plays Sentinels of the Multiverse
00.07.19 Bioshock Infinite
00.41.04 This week's topic: PAX 2013!
01.09.58 Your emails!
01.22.31 Bioshock Infinite spoiler section!

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Comments

Should we just merge this with the Bioshock Infinite thread?

Elizabeth doesn't actually pick up anything; she definitely just pulls it out of nowhere. With all the dudes you kill, you'd think she could find a change purse at some point to carry the money herself, rather than throwing it at you all the time.

gore wrote:

Should we just merge this with the Bioshock Infinite thread?

Elizabeth doesn't actually pick up anything; she definitely just pulls it out of nowhere. With all the dudes you kill, you'd think she could find a change purse at some point to carry the money herself, rather than throwing it at you all the time.

I'd be happy if she'd just be willing to pick up the lockpicks she finds. She can handle ammo, money or health - all items she doesn't need personally, but the one item she actually uses herself she's incapable of picking up.

Teneman wrote:
gore wrote:

Should we just merge this with the Bioshock Infinite thread?

Elizabeth doesn't actually pick up anything; she definitely just pulls it out of nowhere. With all the dudes you kill, you'd think she could find a change purse at some point to carry the money herself, rather than throwing it at you all the time.

I'd be happy if she'd just be willing to pick up the lockpicks she finds. She can handle ammo, money or health - all items she doesn't need personally, but the one item she actually uses herself she's incapable of picking up.

That is a bit annoying and a little off-putting now that you mention it. Yay fridge mechanics!

I noticed she'll call out stuff that's above or below you if you're on stairs. Which makes for some fun times when you're turned off object highlighting (which fortunately doesn't turn off the blue halo for items she points out).

Teneman wrote:
gore wrote:

Should we just merge this with the Bioshock Infinite thread?

Elizabeth doesn't actually pick up anything; she definitely just pulls it out of nowhere. With all the dudes you kill, you'd think she could find a change purse at some point to carry the money herself, rather than throwing it at you all the time.

I'd be happy if she'd just be willing to pick up the lockpicks she finds. She can handle ammo, money or health - all items she doesn't need personally, but the one item she actually uses herself she's incapable of picking up.

Yeah, that's a real head scratcher.

Liz: Hey, Booker, somebody threw a lockpick in the trash over there. Think you could pick it up for me? I don't have any pockets or something.

Book: Sure, I got this. You just keep... doing what you do. Standing around, I guess. It's not like we've got anywhere to be or anything.

* Booker places lockpick in the transdimensional U-haul where he stores all his ammo *

But then we wouldn't get to hear the sound effect of her tossing him money. And honestly, that's my favorite sound effect int he game.

rabbit wrote:

But then we wouldn't get to hear the sound effect of her tossing him money. And honestly, that's my favorite sound effect int he game.

That whooshing sound when she throws stuff at you? I kind of want that as the mail notification on my smart phone.

Speaking of which...

Spoiler:

does anyone know if the coins always come up heads or tails when you catch them?

...what about toilet tossing?

You are not alone! Let me say that it is good to hear others suffering the same issue with the Mouse/Keyboard v. Controller. I might have to officially make the switch to controller on my PC. After 4 hours of gaming last night I could hardly move my wrist...such a shame.

Kezir wrote:

You are not alone! Let me say that it is good to hear others suffering the same issue with the Mouse/Keyboard v. Controller. I might have to officially make the switch to controller on my PC. After 4 hours of gaming last night I could hardly move my wrist...such a shame.

Yeah, I made the jump for FarCry 3, but kind of reluctantly. I'm willing to admit now that this is just how I play games from now on.

Yay, Sentinels of the Multiverse shout-out! Demyx and I are addicted to after demoing it at PAX. So much better than Legendary in terms of capturing the superhero feel. Glad to hear I'm not the only person who's reached for Freedom Force as a comparison point.

EDIT: Also, it's weird to hear Half-Life 2: DM getting talked about. Also weird that Valve hasn't really done much support for that, Day of Defeat or Alien Swarm. (Ok, not weird since they probably weren't huge sellers, but still...)

I'm okay with Elizabeth throwing me money (that noise is great, yeah). I just wish she wouldn't ask me if I want money all the time. Yes, I still want free money.

I'm curious. How soon after finishing the game did Julian and Cory do the interview with Levine? The reason I ask is because I hope it wasn't immediately after, but rather at least a few days after, so that they had time for the experience of reaching the end wear off and to step back and think critically about the game.

Could not disagree more with the comparison between Bioshock Infinite and Dishonored made in the podcast. I thought the writing in Dishonored was pretty middling.

I'm curious. How soon after finishing the game did Julian and Cory do the interview with Levine?

It was actually Julian and I. I finished the game on Tuesday and talked to Ken on that Thursday. I think Julian had just finished the game when we talked to him. So, I'd had a couple of days, and Julian had not.

That will explain why my questions are soooo much better his.

Elysium wrote:
I'm curious. How soon after finishing the game did Julian and Cory do the interview with Levine?

It was actually Julian and I. I finished the game on Tuesday and talked to Ken on that Thursday. I think Julian had just finished the game when we talked to him. So, I'd had a couple of days, and Julian had not.

That will explain why my questions are soooo much better his.

/applause

Elysium wrote:

It was actually Julian and I. I finished the game on Tuesday and talked to Ken on that Thursday. I think Julian had just finished the game when we talked to him. So, I'd had a couple of days, and Julian had not.

That will explain why my questions are soooo much better his.

Noted.

Looking forward to the spoiler section when I can wrap up Bioshock Infinite next week. I thought the pacing was great on this episode. Fewer hosts led to fewer interruptions and less empty air-time. I suspect that we'll eventually get everyone's opinions on B:I soon enough, but this episode had good flow to it.*

*The part I listened to anyway.

Re: Vigor dial-menu: it's mapped to Q by default. I got in the habit of using a similar menu in BioShock 1 all the time because Bioshock hated my mouse so the scroll wheel couldn't be used to switch guns or plasmids without causing the game to get stuck in an infinite scroll wheel activation.

Also, the talk about discomfort from keyboard + mouse (which I sometimes get at work) got This Old Man by MC Frontalot stuck in my head:

Yo, please save me from the wrist hurt disease!

<3 you guys

EDIT: While Elizabeth stays out of the way like 99% of the time, I think I've only had two instances where she either bumped me out of the way or she decided to stand in a doorway. Really well done job there.

Also, listening to Shawn and Sean talk about the currency and upgrades is like hearing my thought process from a few nights ago. Still not totally sure how much I like/dislike that change.

Oh, and I think I'm nearly to 100 screenshots by now. Last time I went this screenshot heavy was Portal 2.

Is there anything to be said about the fact that many of the leads on Dishonored and BioShock Infinite worked together at Looking Glass?

Great episode, guys, I really enjoyed the discussion, and especially the spoiler discussion. You touched on a lot of fascinating points, and it was fun to listen to.

Looking forward to the Ken Levine show!

Hey Julian, thinking about picking up Sentinels to play with my 11 year old daughter. Does it work for 2 player, or is it better with more? Her mom might play, too, but just curious how it works with 2.

It's not as good with 2 as with 3 or 4 is my sense.

MannishBoy wrote:

Hey Julian, thinking about picking up Sentinels to play with my 11 year old daughter. Does it work for 2 player, or is it better with more? Her mom might play, too, but just curious how it works with 2.

I'm not Julian, but I have been playing Sentinels with two. The official recommendation is to play with two heroes each and that's worked well for us. Obviously it's a little more fiddly since you need to keep track of two different sets of cards, but I haven't really had a problem with it. Maybe too much for an eleven year old though? It helps that the heroes are all so different you're not likely to mix up what cards they have down/in their hands.

Another variant I've heard of is to give each player one active hero and one dead hero to start with. That would make the game harder but easier to keep track of both heroes.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that Sentinels attempts to scale some mechanics based on the number of heroes you're using. A prime example is the direct damage from some of the villains, or the number of henchmen the start with (I think). So you can play with fewer heroes, but not all cards scale so you might be at a slight disadvantage with just two heroes. I'd suggest trying with 2 heroes each, and if it's too unwieldy for your daughter give her one hero while you run two on your own.

plavonica wrote:
Kezir wrote:

You are not alone! Let me say that it is good to hear others suffering the same issue with the Mouse/Keyboard v. Controller. I might have to officially make the switch to controller on my PC. After 4 hours of gaming last night I could hardly move my wrist...such a shame.

I have had a couple of friends have success using a trackball mouse, you and others with this issue might want to look into it.

Hadn't even thought of that...worth a try before I invest in a dongle for my Xbox360 controller.

Thanks for the feedback on Sentinel. After watching a few Youtube videos, this looks like an ideal game to convert to digital due to tracking of hit points, etc. You'd think it would do well on iOS, etc.

Seems that the more recent version of the main box includes things to help keep up with the totals, though.

MannishBoy wrote:

Thanks for the feedback on Sentinel. After watching a few Youtube videos, this looks like an ideal game to convert to digital due to tracking of hit points, etc. You'd think it would do well on iOS, etc.

Seems that the more recent version of the main box includes things to help keep up with the totals, though.

They have a good amount of tokens in the latest printing for all the HP/stat tracking you'll need. If you need more you can get an extra pack of tokens direct from the designers for a small fee.

Also, there is a $2 3rd-party (but sanctioned by the designers) iOS app for HP/stat tracking and some other features like random selection of environment, villain, etc. Haven't tried it, but they were using it in some of their demos at PAX East.

A full iOS conversion would be stellar though. The game does a great job of capturing the feeling of fighting a video game boss (or at least an RPG one), and I think it would translate very well to mobile devices. I think the main issue is that the company making the game is incredibly small so they might not have the resources to do the conversion.

shoptroll wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

Thanks for the feedback on Sentinel. After watching a few Youtube videos, this looks like an ideal game to convert to digital due to tracking of hit points, etc. You'd think it would do well on iOS, etc.

Seems that the more recent version of the main box includes things to help keep up with the totals, though.

They have a good amount of tokens in the latest printing for all the HP/stat tracking you'll need. If you need more you can get an extra pack of tokens direct from the designers for a small fee.

Also, there is a $2 3rd-party (but sanctioned by the designers) iOS app for HP/stat tracking and some other features like random selection of environment, villain, etc. Haven't tried it, but they were using it in some of their demos at PAX East.

A full iOS conversion would be stellar though. The game does a great job of capturing the feeling of fighting a video game boss (or at least an RPG one), and I think it would translate very well to mobile devices. I think the main issue is that the company making the game is incredibly small so they might not have the resources to do the conversion.

Looks like there are also a couple of helper apps on Android. One to keep track of stats, one to help you randomize picking heroes, etc. Both free.

I think the Conference Call gave a bad evaluation on the creepiness of Bioshock: Infinite. I am on my second playthrough and there are quite a few very creepy moments and some jump scares. It is not as dark and oppressive as the original Bioshock, but by the end it gets close. The experience becomes more horrific as the game progresses, but I never felt like I was permanently trapped inside someone's nightmare, like I did when I was in Rapture. However, the game still has plenty of disturbing areas and scenes that give me that "flight or fight" feeling.

The Sentinels app for iOS is perfect. Just does what it needs to do. Makes it much smoother keeping track of stuff.

I love that Ducktales remix.