Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 445

I am Bread, GTA V PC, Fractured Space, Westerado: Double Barreled, Hearthstone iPhone, Game Trailers, Your Emails and More!

This week Shawn, Julian, Allen and Elysium talk game trailers, being bread and more!

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.

Fish Tuxedo

Thread of The Week

The Perfect Game to Play on The Toilet?

Chairman_Mao's Timestamps

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

B-3 - BoxCat Games - https://boxcat.bandcamp.com/ - 26:30

Rolling - BoxCat Games - https://boxcat.bandcamp.com/ - 50:16

Comments

GTA5: "I didn't experience any crashes."
- Sean Sands

Yup. Sounds like a box quote right there!!
Loved the episode and Shawn really made me curious about Westerado. Sounds hilarious.
About game trailers... I really couldn't care less about them. I just never watch them. Ever.
Ok hardly ever. I'm not counting the instances when I open a Steam store page and the trailer starts automatically playing.
I don't know, but trailers just don't do it for me.

With Shadows over Mordor my impression (I haven't played the game yet so I'm speaking with the rock solid conviction of someone who doesn't know what he's talking about) is that the real procedural revolution was the relationships i.e. a guy getting promoted because he killed you once, or several times, and taunting you when you meet him on the field for the umpteenth time or the guy returning from the dead with a plate in his skull and an even less sunny disposition than the first time you met him because you shot him in the eye with an arrow.

It's rather nice to still have that game in my future. I suspect I'll enjoy it.

Eleima wrote:

GTA5: "I didn't experience any crashes."
- Sean Sands

Yup. Sounds like a box quote right there!!
Loved the episode and Shawn really made me curious about Westerado. Sounds hilarious.
About game trailers... I really couldn't care less about them. I just never watch them. Ever.
Ok hardly ever. I'm not counting the instances when I open a Steam store page and the trailer starts automatically playing.
I don't know, but trailers just don't do it for me.

Keep your hands off my Sands-- Certis.

I actually use trailers to help make buying decisions, provided they have real gameplay footage. If you know what to look for in gameplay footage, you can judge whether a game is going to control well of not.

Gameplay in a trailer is important to me. I am the opposite of what was said on the CC: I look at gameplay in trailers to see if it is worth trying to dig up a Let's Play to see more gameplay before I decide whether or not to buy.

Unfortunately, most of the games I like (strategy, RPGs) make for poor gameplay trailers. Although sometimes you get something like this

Hearing Shawn complain about Sean's podcast infidelity (don't be jealous) after just being a guest on DLC has me thinking of that "with you it's all or nothing" song from Oklahoma.

Which sucks because now I'm thinking of Oklahoma, but is also delightful because I've replaced the actors with the Sheawns in my mind.

On the ODST trailer, it was actually more an effort to go back to the short films Neil Blomkamp directed for Halo 3, which also had those live action diorama commercials. Those were quite effective, so they've been doing it with each Halo since. That ODST ad, though, is actually so nuanced in the.way it tells a single soldier's story, about how warn he has become burying his friends while there is a much younger soldier filled with vigor by his side, a war ongoing for generations. It's the sort of story I wanted ODST to have, but sadly that game exhibits some of the worst writing. Bungie never took Halo as far as it could have gone, and I doubt 343 ever will.

It's a shame that the ODST trailer is the best Halo story we'll ever get.

I also said this elsewhere, just can't recall (in my own show notes for RambleCast?), but I thought Guitar Hero Live was going to grab the Twitch culture like Upsilon Circuit was planning to until I heard that, no, that trailer was basically the game.

Such a bad idea.

As I was listening to the podcast this morning, the trailer discussion reminded me of political strategy discussions in that they're about "mobilizing the base." There's an assumption that people will know which side they're on or whether they're interested in the game, but the political ad or trailer is there to get them excited enough to actually act on that. In other words, trailers are about hype.

Speaking of hype, now I really want to check out Fractured Space. Dropping "Napoleonic" in that conversation makes me wonder if things from Napoleonic naval games could be present—gun placement affecting ability to fire, ways to hamper enemy abilities (speed, steering, firepower), etc. And since it's space, I want to know if momentum is an issue. I don't know if such things would make for an enjoyable MOBA, though.

Speaking of the value in distinctions, does being in the bronze bracket differ from a conceptual over-50 league in a useful way? I don't have an answer, but I think I might be comfortable playing with people at my own level regardless of why they're at that level. I mean, when I play sports, I don't particularly care if people are as bad as me because they're injured, old, or just lazy like me. I just don't want to get skunked.

But then I'm generally not interested in playing anything competitively. Let me know when there's a poetic explication competition and I'm there, though—especially if there's a digital league.

The referenced SWToR commercial mostly made me wonder why that studio wasn't making a new Star Wars animated movie. It piqued my interest in the game not at all. Trailers in general are like that for me. Unless I'm looking at actual gameplay footage I mostly just wonder what else the animation department is/could be working on.

Also, I might disagree that Diable os procedural. But to get into that can of worms I think we need a solid working definition of procedural and random.

Right you are, Zudz, I totally forgot to mention that in my post! The one SW:TOR trailer that I saw was EPIC. And I was a bit underwhelmed by the game itself, to be honest. (yes, I was aware that the game proper would look nothing like the cinematic trailer, of course)
I'd love to see that studio make a new Star Wars animated movie, they had that whole thing nailed to a tee.

tboon wrote:

Gameplay in a trailer is important to me. I am the opposite of what was said on the CC: I look at gameplay in trailers to see if it is worth trying to dig up a Let's Play to see more gameplay before I decide whether or not to buy.

Unfortunately, most of the games I like (strategy, RPGs) make for poor gameplay trailers. Although sometimes you get something like this

This trailer is amazing and makes me want to play this game.

I would like to thank Shawn for changing his choice for thread of the week, because that conversation was hilarious.

tboon wrote:

Gameplay in a trailer is important to me. I am the opposite of what was said on the CC: I look at gameplay in trailers to see if it is worth trying to dig up a Let's Play to see more gameplay before I decide whether or not to buy.

+1

No gameplay = no interest from me.

I'm in the no secret sauce camp. No tool is universal for a trailer. My general feeling with movie trailers is that I prefer to have as little of the plot spoiled as possible, and that probably transfers over as a general feel, but I can't say its universal law. Sometimes plot spoilage is useful.

In indie games I enjoy seeing some game play. My current trailer obsession:

That CKII trailer is amazing, Demyx!

terrible poop pun quoted in audio for posterity.....check.

That's one thing off of the bucket list, at least.

I imagine in the future retirement homes will have really loud music and constant LAN parties.

Edit: I knew there was a Conference Call discussion about toilet gaming some time in the past.

In response to the matchmaking conversation about a good matchmaking system having you win 50% of your games, sometimes this can be circumvented if the game system allows you to. For example, when I first started playing Hearthstone, I found that I would reach a level where I thought I could win easily and switch to casual instead of ranked games (I know, I know, I'm so ashamed). Eventually this came back to bite me as more and more people either started doing the same or testing out extremely gimmickey decks in the casual games and I returned to playing primarily ranked matches.

Has anyone else found a similar mechanic in games of this sort. I don't play MOBAs or competitive RTSs because I know I'll get eaten alive, but I'm curious if such a thing exists as those genre's always appeal to me. Short of bot matches, I can't think of any myself.

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

My current trailer obsession:

Something about the way those sprites die is really satisfying to me.

Stumbled across this compilation while listening to the podcast, seemed appropriate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...

Pleased to hear good things about Westerado. I put my money where my mouth was, but haven't played it yet.

Rat Boy wrote:

I imagine in the future retirement homes will have really loud music and constant LAN parties

Now I'm actually looking forward to getting old!

Felix Threepaper wrote:

Pleased to hear good things about Westerado. I put my money where my mouth was, but haven't played it yet.

Rat Boy wrote:

I imagine in the future retirement homes will have really loud music and constant LAN parties

Now I'm actually looking forward to getting old!

Time to revive the thread(s) about the GWJ retirement home idea?

I take issue with the claim that X-COM has great controller support. Yes it seems to be very well mapped, but the implementation of switching between M&K and controller is clunky and partially broken (see mouse cursor comment below). Menu based switching is required, and so will not auto switch prompts and display based on the last input device you touched, and leaves the mouse cursor displayed (in the middle of the screen) when launched via Steam Big Picture mode.

Many games have come before it and done controller support way better. My first experience of it done right was Just Cause 2, back in 2010 which did all those things I pointed out that X-COM does not.

Also, for wrist relief, looking for a vertical mouse may be a good idea, too,

Re: wrist relief.

I was diagnosed with an "Ulner pinch" a few years back, which is the 2nd most common desk injury after RSI. Long story short, I was spending so much time with my forearms on desks, bearing weight, that I was straining the nerves running the length of my arm/shoulder/back, causing them to swell, which in turn caused numbness in my fingers and hands.

First the doc recommended that I "sleep different", but that didn't really last long. Then it was "spend as much time as possible with your elbows not bent".

Finally, I ended up doing a standing desk at work, and have been numbness-free since then. I still have to take care during marathon sessions with a controller, but find that as long as I'm not resting weight on the outside edges of my forearms or hands, I'll generally be fine.

tboon wrote:

Gameplay in a trailer is important to me. I am the opposite of what was said on the CC: I look at gameplay in trailers to see if it is worth trying to dig up a Let's Play to see more gameplay before I decide whether or not to buy.

Unfortunately, most of the games I like (strategy, RPGs) make for poor gameplay trailers. Although sometimes you get something like this

Paradox have surprisingly good trailers. The one that leapt to mind for me was Magicka Vietnam:

And you can have a good trailer for an indie game, you just need to take the time (and have the skills) to cut it well and have a good soundtrack:

.

.

You knew it was coming.

Omg, Hearthstone on the phone is going to be the end of me.

More Youtube links please. More trailers too. They add to the conversation and don't at all ruin threads and are what I most come here for.

You asked for it.

And finally, one I made for my first article here:

Whoops! Double post.

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

.

.

You knew it was coming.

You kid (I hope) but the 2001 DNF trailer was really well constructed and exciting:

Just so you gents are aware, Monster Hunter 4U is a 3DS only game, so I don't think that poster was advocating lugging a Wii U controller by the pooper, though the imagery was worth the confusion

Also, there's a good argument to me made that MH4U is the best game released this year, even over Pillars and Bloodborne, so one of you (well, probably only Shawn) should consider giving it a shot at some point.

MeatMan wrote:
tboon wrote:

Gameplay in a trailer is important to me. I am the opposite of what was said on the CC: I look at gameplay in trailers to see if it is worth trying to dig up a Let's Play to see more gameplay before I decide whether or not to buy.

+1

No gameplay = no interest from me.

I'll third this. I lose interest very quickly during fully cinematic trailers, even if it's a game I'm really looking forward to. Gameplay or bust.

Remember that pre-Bloodborne Project Beast footage was leaked on NeoGAF about 2 weeks before E3 last year? It was low rez, pixelated and messy as hell, but it was so much more exciting than the cinematic trailer they brought out during the conference.

For some reason, this does not carry over to cinematics during games that I'm playing. I still love watching a good CG cutscene every once in a while.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:
tboon wrote:

Gameplay in a trailer is important to me. I am the opposite of what was said on the CC: I look at gameplay in trailers to see if it is worth trying to dig up a Let's Play to see more gameplay before I decide whether or not to buy.

Unfortunately, most of the games I like (strategy, RPGs) make for poor gameplay trailers. Although sometimes you get something like this

Paradox have surprisingly good trailers. The one that leapt to mind for me was Magicka Vietnam:

Yeah Paradox usually has an uphill battle using trailers to highlight why you should care about their games. So they tend to go all-in on crazy. This is another good one by them:

I'm in for the age 40+ multiplayer gaming league as suggested by Rabbit!

...Or I will be, as soon as I turn 40 in a few years!