Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 418

Forza Horizon 2, Alien Isolation, Shadow of Mordor, Get Off My Lawn, Your Emails and More!

This week Shawn, Elysium and Julian tell you to get off their lawn.

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
00.03.04 Forza Horizon 2
00.10.21 Alien Isolation
00.18.27 Shadow of Mordor
00.23.03 This week's topic: Get off my lawn!
00.36.31 Your emails!

  • Subscribe with iTunes
  • Subscribe with RSS
  • Subscribe with Yahoo!
Download the official apps
  • Download the GWJ Conference Call app for Android
  • Download the GWJ Conference Call app for Android

Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Comments

Never got in to LAN Parties (something I now regret), but I'm old enough to recall in middle school trying to connect over dial-up modem to my buddy 10 miles away to play OG Diablo.

Sometimes it was so difficult to secure a connection. I remember having to click connect over and over again suffering interminable error messa- wait.

Things haven't changed that much have they?

My favorite feelie ever had to be the letter in the NES game Startropics from your Uncle Jones calling you to adventure. At first it just plays the role of the cloth map or other 'neat but pointless' add in, but after maybe 6? 8? hours of adventuring you're told to soak the letter in water to reveal a hidden message with in-game coordinates you need to navigate to find where your uncle had gone. Blew my tiny mind.

IMAGE(http://s27.postimg.org/uzt163gpf/image.png)

I really want to play Alien Isolation but I might be too much of a scarredy cat considering I went into SLENDER thinking, It's a video game how can it even be remotely scary then, after walking down a track and exploring an environment for a while with a torch, I quit out of the game without even seeing another being because I was so unnerved.

I can't begin to imagine the terror of playing Alien Isolation on an oculus rift.

MeatMan wrote:

IMAGE(http://s27.postimg.org/uzt163gpf/image.png)

Oh, how I loved and hated that thing!

IMAGE(http://gallery.guetech.org/hhgttg/hh06.jpg)

On the other hand..
IMAGE(http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2011/05/box.jpg)

What I'm really starting to miss is snappy and efficient menus in games. While I love how single player modes in many games have embraced "the cloud" to provide score chasing and enhanced AI, I wish they would stop infecting every menu with it.

Even when it is not outright bricking games, like NBA2K14, it has added an extra pause for every menu selection as the game continually calls home to add more info I'm not requesting. It might checking for DLC to sell, grabbing my progress on collectibles, or just letting M know someone beat M score or accomplishment.

I just wish there was more of a line between on and offline, and you could make that call before getting laggy menus.

Talking about feelies reminded me of my love for Trinity. It was an Infocom text adventure which included an awesome comic book titled The Illustrated Story of the Atom Bomb.

Isn't Skylanders kinda a feelies thing? That is a really big game these days that has a feelies component. Given the feelies don't have much use except as a sort of code that only the computer understands but it does seem like the new version of that.

I am one of those suckers getting the Inquisitor Edition of DAI. I will let you guys know if the feelies are worth it.

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

I am one of those suckers getting the Inquisitor Edition of DAI. I will let you guys know if the feelies are worth it.

Me too; well, my wife is, and I'm getting a digital deluxe for myself, since we only need one set of the feelies

McIrishJihad wrote:

I've got fond memories of the feelies-as-DRM back in the Sierra Games days (King's Quest IV comes to mind), where you needed the manual (at least, its text) to start up the game.

It's pretty impressive that copy protection could be turned into something we remember fondly, isn't it?

Infocom could get particularly devious -- several of their games didn't ask the question you needed one of the feelies to answer until you were pretty far in.

McIrishJihad wrote:

Anyone else remember that first play through of Metal Gear Solid on PSone, and you're directed to contact Meryl "using the frequency on the back of the CD case"? And then you flip over the CD case, and [b]BOOM[b] there's a codec screenshot with a frequency you're supposed to call?

Metal Gear Solid was so good at bleeding into the players world.

I never played it, but didn't one of the boss fights require you to have a second controller?

I've got fond memories of the feelies-as-DRM back in the Sierra Games days (King's Quest IV comes to mind), where you needed the manual (at least, its text) to start up the game.

Anyone else remember that first play through of Metal Gear Solid on PSone, and you're directed to contact Meryl "using the frequency on the back of the CD case"? And then you flip over the CD case, and BOOM there's a codec screenshot with a frequency you're supposed to call?

Tanglebones wrote:

IMAGE(http://gallery.guetech.org/hhgttg/hh06.jpg)

This was the first thing I thought of when they spoke about feelies for text-based games. Apparently the fluff goes for upwards of 45 c now on eBay

MeatMan wrote:

IMAGE(http://s27.postimg.org/uzt163gpf/image.png)

Aw yeah! Those things.

I miss feelies too but what I really miss, and it was mentioned only in passing on the CC, is big paper manuals. The kind you can take with you to the restroom for recreational reading. PDFs are a poor substitute.

Ah, loved this episode, it really spoke to me.
I miss feelies too... When you guys mentioned Infocon, I immediately thought of my old Return to Work, Zork Nemesis and Zork Grand Inquisitor "feelies", the Encyclopedia Frobozzica... I love feelies and I mourn their loss when my parents moved out of my childhood home and I wasn't there to save them...
And LAN parties... Good times! I've been to less than 5, but each and every one of those left precious memories of good times with good friends!
I really need to get into board games: good friends and feelies!! You can't lose!

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

I never played it, but didn't one of the boss fights require you to have a second controller?

Spoiler:

Yeah, Psycho Mantis can supposedly read your mind until you confuse him by plugging your controller into Port 2

On the other end, I wonder if part of the reason I keep playing Destiny even though I am not enjoying it at this point is that I bought the Ghost Edition. And the Ghost, Map, and post cards are displayed in my office. All of the stuff is really nice (the Ghost feels heavy and substantive with a cool speaker, the art on the postcards is cool, and the map looks and feels awesome on my door). But ultimately, they are advertisements for a product that I do not whole-heartedly endorse.

But, I have to love this game because I spent so much money on it and the stuff is so awesome, right?!

Star Wars: Republic Commando is available on Steam (ha! Rabbit-hausered as I was writing this up). The one Star Wars game I really want a sequel to but will never happen, and now that co-op is a big thing you'd think they'd be all on top of that.

Something that I just considered about Alien: Isolation is that it's not frustrating for me to restart a location. I haven't really played since Sunday or Monday, but I kept dying at the Med Bay and having to replay it. However, because the Alien is "unpredictable" (which is not completely true), the experience was never the exact same. It's closer to playing a multiplayer match, where you might have a primary strategy, but every time I died at a different location in a different way.

So even though I have to repeat certain steps, the way in which I approach the problem changes because the Alien is also changing and doing different things. I actually like that about the game... so far. In mission five.

I hope to get a lot more time in it this weekend.

I'll never forget Alone in the Dark required the little mini book to identify guns and items at the beginning of the game.

...wait, that was a primitive form of DRM, wasn't it!?

The Metal Gear Solid things - oh those were so memorable and awesome. The back of the case coordinate moment - WHOA!! Mind blowing to a middle schooler. Switching controller ports for Psycho Mantis. HOLY GOSH THIS IS AMAZING!

Did the old MGS cause as much controversy as the new one? I don't recall such. Guess it wasn't as realistic.

ccesarano wrote:

Star Wars: Republic Commando is available on Steam

How they managed to finagle an entire game out of Admiral Ackbar's lack of underwear is beyond me..

I miss the day's of physical goods and that feeling of getting a new Ultima game and knowing there was going to be a cloth map as well as all sorts of other interesting manuals and items. Much of this is probably simply longing for the relative "ignorance" of youth where simple lack of information kept things fresh and interesting.

I'm old enough that I remember reviews in Dragon magazine and Computer Gaming World as one of my primary methods of discovering new CRPG's.

These days games are well known and completely over-analyzed before they are even launched.

Tanglebones wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

Star Wars: Republic Commando is available on Steam

How they managed to finagle an entire game out of Admiral Ackbar's lack of underwear is beyond me..

Water, spayed all over the table of the restaurant I'm sitting in. At least it wasn't hot coffee, you monster.

On the topic of expansions vs. DLC - I miss expansions too, but I think the a la carte approach with DLC works as well. For example, there was some DLC for Saint’s Row the Third I really didn’t care for and having the option to not have that forced on me was a decision I could make. I most likely wouldn't be able to do that if it was bundled as part of an expansion unless the devs had the foresight to include a way to toggle parts of the expansion on or off.

However, while Season Passes effectively operate as expansion packs, I find it really tacky when there's a marketing push to order the Season Pass prior to a game being available. I much prefer companies wait a few weeks until the game is released before announcing the Season Pass offer. Which isn't to say I think Season Passes are inherently bad. If people have enough trust in your product and studio to want to order a bundle of upcoming content then I think it's a good practice to reward those fans with a discount or additional bonuses. Just... don't put the cart before the horse by heavily marketing it before release.

Also, I find selling individual skins for characters and weapons for $0.99 a pop to be overpriced, although I probably wouldn’t blink an eye at buying a pack of 10 skins for $5 as a “tip jar” contribution for continued support of a good game.

tboon wrote:

I miss feelies too but what I really miss, and it was mentioned only in passing on the CC, is big paper manuals. The kind you can take with you to the restroom for recreational reading. PDFs are a poor substitute.

I'm right there with you on this. As a kid I would read, re-read, and re-read some more, the manuals for Maxis's games like SimCity 2000 and SimTower because they explained not just how to play the game, but they would also dive into the underpinnings of the simulations and the research they did (complete with bibliography!). Sadly the original The Sims manual was the last one like that. When The Sims Deluxe Edition came out two years after the original release they had done away with the explanation of the simulation and research sections.

I also had a soft spot for the manuals of Blizzard games which were basically huge info dumps of backstory and full page illustrations.

That said, I've made peace with loading PDFs onto my tablet and reading them on the couch. Although, it weirds me out that I had to remember that the "manual" button on the home screen menu exists on my 3DS when I was looking for some information about how a feature in Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call worked.

SO MUCH LOVE for the feelies! Makes me so happy.

I wish I still knew where this was:

IMAGE(http://www.thezorklibrary.com/history/image/zorkmid-1zmcoinbelwitfront.jpg)

Oddly enough, I stopped really missing Instruction Manuals when the art went to more and more realistic 3D character models. Nintendo Power and Instruction Manuals essentially taught me how to draw, as I'd prop one up on the arm rest of our couch and then sit down and drew what I saw. While some 3D models were something I could work with, such as the Final Fantasy VII art, more and more games sough realism.

I just didn't want to draw realistically. I had real life all around me if I wanted to draw that.

I love a good manual. Fallout had a great manual. And did anyone else read the novella that was in the Spectre VR manual?

"Who cares if inserting the interface directly into my skull kills a few million neurons? It's worth it for the boost in reaction time you get over the socket!"

I preordered Rayman origins and the art book that came with it turned out to be one of my daughter's favorite things to look at before bed.

Okay, it wasn't in this episode, and Google turns up nothing, but am I remembering correctly that Certis (I think) in a recent episode used the term "Steam Cellar" (a la "wine cellar") as a positive spin on what we traditionally call the "pile of shame" / backlog of owned but unplayed games?

Hey, if wine drinkers can buy more wine than they can reasonably ever drink and feel good about it, why can't gamers?

Just want to make sure I'm giving credit where it's due when I use that phrase in the future!

I do believe that was a tweet. Media synergies! Cory is going to be so proud.