GWJ Conference Call Episode 89

Episode 89 - June 18th, 2008
Metal Gear Solid 4, Video Game Buy In, An Interview With John Carmack, A Missive From The District 97, Your Emails and more!

Right Click Here and 'Save As' to Download!
(A Sneaky 54.8megs, 1:59:45)

We're very pleased this week to have an interview with John Carmack! Sadly, he doesn't give us much on Rage, but saves the real rage for patent trolls and the influx of lawyers into the videogame business. The rest of the time we talk about Metal Gear Solid 4, buying into games and your sweet, tender emails.

To contact us, email ! 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.

Links

Metal Gear Solid 4
Age of Conan
id Software
Fireball Island
Steam Community

Music Credits:

Intro/Outro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

"Carving Away Stone" Ian Dorsch - 0:41:54
"Washaway" Ian Dorsch - 1:06:26
"Los Pistoleros" Ian Dorsch - 1:38:17

Anime Junky
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Nei's picture
Location: Citadel, Widow System, Serphent Nebula

Interview with JC... ...wow!

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the pot and the kettle
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boogle's picture
Location: Norman, OK

This appeared in the games section of the forums for me.

pretend boogle wrote:

tweed jacket + pedestrian = Parisian dandy

Chainsaw Queen
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Mystic Violet's picture
Location: San Diego, CA

boogle wrote:
This appeared in the games section of the forums for me.

Yup. I see it too! Ninja fix!

Intern
Purple_Haze's picture
Location: New Zealand

You always make the emails sound more erotic than they are.

Not Without Incident
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Quintin_Stone's picture
Location: Cary, NC

Mystic Violet wrote:
boogle wrote:
This appeared in the games section of the forums for me.

Yup. I see it too! Ninja fix!


Same!

Certis wrote:

Quintin is both smart and attractive.

Fedaykin98 wrote:
Good lord, I wouldn't have expected brilliance like that from that nemeslut Quintin Stone!

<+katisu> Q-Stone is an internet genius

TGIF
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Thirteenth's picture
Location: Los Angeles, California

John Carmack? Really?

"Faggodouchehole." - Rickyyo

El Pollo Diablo
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In for John Carmack : O

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Certis's picture

Mystic Violet wrote:
boogle wrote:
This appeared in the games section of the forums for me.

Yup. I see it too! Ninja fix!


ninja

I find Certis quite attractive. - Quintin Stone

Twitch Gamer
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Spaz's picture
Location: Los Angeles

Daaaaaaaaaamn. Talking to John Carmack? Way pimpin, Mr. Murdoch.

I was pretty surprised to learn that Carmack agreed to an interview. I've always seen him as very shy and the kind to move away from a public role. He's adorably geeky.

"Nazis? More like Not-zis!"
"Ninjas? More like Non-jas!"

Revel in the sheer improbability that in a universe of such mind-shattering emptiness, you have someone to love...-Coldstream
They stopped being meaningful to me as devices a long time ago, and now they've stopped being meaningful as things-ClockworkHous

Executive
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nossid's picture
Location: Sweden

Always a pleasure listening to Carmack. I have huge respect for him and his views on these matters closely reflect my own. And Rabbit, sneaking in a Doom 3 is dark bit, ballsy!

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Executive
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Zelos's picture
Location: Sussex, UK

Interesting points on the game buy-in thing. I think whoever it was that said it's a gut feeling is right: a lot of what passes for discussion about games is really just retroactive justification of how we feel about a game, IMHO. We decide up front whether we like a game, then view the rest of the game through that filter.

PSN: benruk | Steam: zelos

Unprncbl
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Duoae's picture

*Watches the site's traffic increase several fold*

I liked the segment were Rob dragged you all over to the dark side... Rob leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering...

I never really enjoy a game based on one mechanic. It gets old too fast for me. Games that i enjoy tend to have an overall goodness. Which means i often enjoy average games where the gameplay is okay, the story is okay and the graphics are okay. If just one aspect is good i still won't enjoy it. Speaking of Dark Messiah, i liked that game - the combat system was (and still is) pretty evolutionary for FPS games and i'd love for the next elder scrolls to integrate that mechanic with a more full magic-focused system as seen in Morrowind.

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Bacon is a goodjer in your pants.

Baron Münchhausen
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rabbit's picture
Location: The Basement

I was surprised he took the interview too. I think the PR person from iD was as well. I think I hit his hot-button issue. He was indeed a lot of fun to chat with.

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McCharles, If You're Nasty
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Dibs on the sixth seat at GenCon. Called it.

JUST PUZZLED YOUR ASS UP, SON! -Mr Crinkle

the pot and the kettle
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boogle's picture
Location: Norman, OK

All I know is casting in Morrowind sucked balls. They improved big time in Oblivion and I think its only up from there.

pretend boogle wrote:

tweed jacket + pedestrian = Parisian dandy

It's Dead To Me
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Quote:
I liked the segment were Rob dragged you all over to the dark side... Rob leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering...

I knew it. Rob holds the path to the dark side.

Great job landing Carmack, Rabbit! You guys never fail to impress.

Psychotic Foreign Teenage Chicks are so hot. - Legion
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Wiener Bombardier
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Podunk's picture
Location: The People's Republic of Goodge

F*cking awesome, you guys.

PSI Level Ω
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Vrikk's picture
Location: Onett, Eagleland

The talk of MGS 4 being frustrating doesn't give me hope that I'll enjoy it as much as I did the last three.

Yet even then we ran like the wind,
whilst our laughter echoed under cerulean skies...

Lord of the Rats
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Rat Boy's picture
Location: Hitting it in NorCal

Was that a Flight Simulator mention I heard?

"Men like sex, thus boobies! Oogaba!" - dejanzie

"Butt hat is my opinion and we all know how far that goes around here." - Demonicmaster

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Captain_Arrrg's picture
Location: Mountians of Colorado

BEST. INTERVIEW. EVER.

Yonder wrote:

Those Obama-lovers should be ashamed of themselves up on their Ivory Tower with their Sexting, Bromancing, Chillaxin' all cool.

Precioussss
Brennil's picture

McChuck wrote:
Dibs on the sixth seat at GenCon. Called it.

I've already pulled the Wife Card and nabbed that seat.

Texas Teabagger
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Carmack rules. Way to go rabbit! Great interview!

Steam: TheWalt

Xbox Live: TheWalt2

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Vrikk wrote:
I loved the last three MGS games. Chances are I'll love this one!

Rob hates everything. Chances are he'll hate this too!

Oh, hey, Rob hated this too! Should I get the game?! Oh, I don't know anymore! What should I dooooooooooo?!

OK, so that's some pretty extensive paraphrase action. But seriously, check out MGS4. If you liked the other three, you'll like this one, too.

Oh Me of Little Faith
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Rat Boy wrote:
Was that a Flight Simulator mention I heard?

I'm only halfway through the podcast, and I've heard Rabbit mention FS like three or four times.

At least I think it was three or four. Between FS, Bioshock and Rob Rage, things began to look all... bendy.

Certis wrote:

I think doubtingthomas makes a number of good points there. I don't need to re-hash them.

Zigguratbuilder wrote:
the game amounts to Tic-Tac-Toe with guns.

PSN name: DoubtingTom396 Frie-hend meeeee uuuuup!

McCharles, If You're Nasty
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McChuck's picture
Location: Where The Line is a dot.

Brennil wrote:
McChuck wrote:
Dibs on the sixth seat at GenCon. Called it.

I've already pulled the Wife Card and nabbed that seat.

D'oh! Fine then. I call dibs on party bard. I'll stay on the sidelines with my fellow minstrels and sing tales of your feats.

Bravely brave Sir Robin ...

JUST PUZZLED YOUR ASS UP, SON! -Mr Crinkle

Lord of the Rats
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Rat Boy's picture
Location: Hitting it in NorCal

Dammit, "caliphate" was my drinking word today.

Edit: And I played Fireball Island and I enjoyed it every time. Mind you, I was six when it came out.

"Men like sex, thus boobies! Oogaba!" - dejanzie

"Butt hat is my opinion and we all know how far that goes around here." - Demonicmaster

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Donator

Regarding the load times in MGS4: Was anyone else actually annoyed by this? Load times between areas are about six to seven seconds each, and it usually takes me about ten minutes to get through an area without being seen. The hard drive installation complaint is more credible, but I've had to accept this as par for the course with PS3 games, since the read speed on the Blu-ray drive is so slow. Fortunately, the install isn't as lengthy as with some other PS3 games, most notably DMC4; and I'm not sure we currently have the technology to allow for real-time streaming of textures and character models that are this detailed and this high-res.

Come to think of it, it's a shame you guys never got around to discussing the graphical detail on display here. On my Bravia, this is easily the best-looking game I've ever seen. Some of the cutscenes in particular have had me wondering why Konami's bothering with a live-action MGS movie when this looks just as good.

Intern
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Incidentally, "Ohhhhh, those were the best spikes" is now my favorite quote from this podcast.

Citrus Casanova
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zeroKFE's picture
Location: In your fruit bowl terrorizing the oranges

It's been pretty well covered in the threads devoted to the game, but Rob couldn't be more wrong about MGS4.

Anime Junky
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Nei's picture
Location: Citadel, Widow System, Serphent Nebula

Nijhazer wrote:
Regarding the load times in MGS4: Was anyone else actually annoyed by this? Load times between areas are about six to seven seconds each, and it usually takes me about ten minutes to get through an area without being seen.

Loading between areas does not bother me much because I tend to take my time, however, it does become annoying during the vehicle sequences. Since they tend to go through the areas pretty quick and it fair to say that the game ramps up the action, seeing a loading screen every other min really kind of ruins the moment. It's like watching an action movie and hitting pause every min for 10 sec... sure, stuff still blowing up but some how it losses it's impact.

zeroKFE wrote:
It's been pretty well covered in the threads devoted to the game, but Rob couldn't be more wrong about MGS4.

Yep, agree!

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