GWJ Conference Call Episode 139
Red Faction: Guerrilla, Sims 3, inFamous, Uncharted 2 Beta, Overlord II Demo, Our Lesser Known E3 Picks, Your Emails and more!
(A Juicy 50.6 megs, 1:28:28)
This week Michael Zenke joins us to discuss the aftermath of E3 and some of the lesser noticed games from the show. We also delve into some of our favorites and bask in the afterglow of a rather excellent E3. If you want to submit a question or comment call in to our voicemail line at (612) 284-4563.
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. You can also submit a question or comment call in to our voicemail line at (612) 284-4563!
Links
Red Faction: Guerrilla
The Sims 3
inFamous
Overlord II
GWJ On Twitter
Steam Community
Music Credits:
Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks
"Washaway" (Ian Dorsch) - 0:40:58
"Carving Away Stone" (Ian Dorsch) - 1:20:36
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Well if that isn't a wonderful way to start out a front page post. I re-read it 3 times trying to figure out what the heck it was talking about...
Anyway, glad to hear Zenke makes another appearance. Looking forward to listening to this...
Another great episode tho at the start it's interesting to see how little zonk actually participates...
Basking in the glow of all you guys awesomeness
XBL | Steam
Shoal07 wrote:
Just wait until we talk about The Old Republic.
Last.fm | Twitter
"Publishers still speak in hushed tones about el bunny de la muerte." - *Legion*
Just random too. This was the only thread the spammer hit.
I find Certis quite attractive. - Quintin Stone
Great episode, guys. Couple of quick points:
* Cory, you don't have to wait to buy a PSP Go to play either of the games that you mentioned; both Patapon 2 and Jeanne D'arc are already available for download on the PlayStation Store. (In fact, Patapon 2 was the first download-only US PSP release, as American retail packages only contain a download voucher.)
* You're not arguing about semantics; you're just disagreeing about language.
* I really want to keep hope alive for Dragon Age, but I'm not so sure that marketing has anything at all to do with the problems surrounding the perceived tone of the game. Don't forget that the lead designer of the game presented the "She'll Really Do Anything" demonstration that outlined all of the various "sextracurricular" activities that are available.
Xbox Live | Twitter
To be fair 1) ignore marketing, which is what this crap is and 2) clearly this is marketing to sell to 18 year old 360 owners.
MilkmanDanimal wrote:
NSMike wrote:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/garion333
Well, hopefully this concludes the "Red Faction Cast" and we can get back to the Gamer's with Jobs cast...
Now I know how people feel when Elysium talks about WOW too much.
Just so you guys are aware - you mentioned the directionlessness of Red Faction's singleplayer abnd it's very true, but only until you get to the third or fourth area. The transition from Parker -> Dust -> Oasis/Badlands is pretty dramatic, and the game starts off very slowly but picks up a ton of speed once you get through a half-dozen story missions or so.
How is it marketing when it appears that the developers have spent a non-negligible amount of time fleshing out the game mechanics for it?
Xbox Live | Twitter
Because they're pimping it. Just as they're using heavy metal music in the trailers and tons of blood. I really don't expect the game to be just about sex and violence. It is Bioware still, so "real" story exists . . . somewhere.
Edit: I'm not saying I agree. I hate their whole marketing campaign. It's stupid, but I suppose it may help them sell games or whatever.
MilkmanDanimal wrote:
NSMike wrote:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/garion333
RE: Wii MotionPlus Some early reviews on Tiger Woods and Grand Slam Tennis say that MotionPlus makes all the difference and that the Wii version is hands down the best golf game / version of Tiger Woods 10 out there. Plus it has a good frisbee golf mode, too. That said, it's a sports game so I don't care about it at all beyond the fact that it's helping push MotionPlus out the door.
Steam: mrtomaytohead
Wii Console code: 7415 7854 7235 1798
Backloggery
My point is that this doesn't seem to be a case where the marketing campaign is manufacturing or intentionally deceiving a potential customer on the game's content. (A fine example of that would be the metal music that you mentioned.)
For better or worse, this appears to be a real aspect of Dragon Age; the question is whether there's anything remarkable beyond that...and I'm not sure that the coverage/exposure of the game, to this point, has provided a satisfactory answer to that question.
Xbox Live | Twitter
Great show guys... though I'll never understand the 'i'm too lazy to deal with and i hate physical media' mentality.
My and Tboon's podcast: The Easy Button
IRC Pearls of Wisdom:
Bacon is a goodjer in your pants.
I'm pretty sure that's what they would have said pre-Steam. While for some reason I like all digital on a PC, I would still rather physical media on a console. In terms of portable platforms, keeping everything digital is so nice and I think it should be the only way to go. (no pun intended)
Steam: mrtomaytohead
Wii Console code: 7415 7854 7235 1798
Backloggery
"Sony's marketing campaign got off to a flying start"
My and Tboon's podcast: The Easy Button
IRC Pearls of Wisdom:
Bacon is a goodjer in your pants.
I'd really only played about 20 minutes of the Red Faction demo, so I didn't have much to add there.
As a listener to the show as well as an occasional guest, I feel a responsibility to keep my contributions valuable. As Rabbit notes, I get more ... vocal ... when we talk about the Old Republic.
WoW BHA: Hackworth, Rogue / Hackwyrth, Priest
If you guys haven't seen Scribblenauts footage, you should really go check out the episode of Co-Op where they played it on the show floor.
By the time they had Cthulhu (who took up pretty much the whole screen) fighting a vampire (who was then killed by a vampire hunter), I was sold.
Steam ID: Ravenlock
XBL / GFWL Gamertag: Ravenlock80
I write about games when I can find time at Erratic Gamer.
I thought Rabbit made up 'fractionate' but maybe that is partially why my Scrabble skills are not that high.
Steam ID: ihateuyeahu
Xbox Live: ihateuyeahu
PSN: ihateuyeahu
BNet: idislikeumildly
Impulse:ihateuyeahu
My point is that this doesn't seem to be a case where the marketing campaign is manufacturing or intentionally deceiving a potential customer on the game's content. (A fine example of that would be the metal music that you mentioned.)
For better or worse, this appears to be a real aspect of Dragon Age; the question is whether there's anything remarkable beyond that...and I'm not sure that the coverage/exposure of the game, to this point, has provided a satisfactory answer to that question.
The use of "deceiving" is a bit harsh. They're not trying to fool people into buying this game, they're playing up the aspects (sex, violence, blood) that they think will sell to certain people. This is not a sex game, even though sex is obviously in it and perhaps a bit more gratuitous than it was handled in other Bioware games.
If you're only watching trailers of the game, then yes, be afraid, but there is a ton more info out there about the game and the actual game footage demos that I've seen show it's very much the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate, and not a game centered around trying to bang all the women in your party. That's why I'm saying (and the guys said on the show) that this emphasis on t&a and blood is marketing, it's emphasizing certain aspects in order to wet people's appetites and E3 was a great place to do that with the booth babes et al.
People who love Baldur's Gate and rpgs already know about this game. The trailers and stuff are for all the other people who have never heard of Baldur's Gate or Bioware.
I think we're running in circles now.
MilkmanDanimal wrote:
NSMike wrote:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/garion333
Point taken; that was a poor choice of words.
Decent-looking combat footage doesn't really allay my own personal concerns about the storyline, though, which seemed to be the featured attraction behind the first two Baldur's Gate games. (Though that might be a misread on my part; BioWare did happily spin off that engine into the Icewind Dale series, didn't they.)
Xbox Live | Twitter
Just a correction, the 60g 360 hard drive does NOT come with a transfer cable, only the 120g does. I upgraded from a 20 to a 60 earlier this year when the Fallout DLC started dropping and had to wait a week for the cable to arrive by mail, agonizing about having to wait to experience the new Fallout-y goodness (only to get kicked in the pants by the lackluster shine of Operation Anchorage).
"hell, this is a dinosaur!"
Fallen Earth - "Ruhk," XboxLive- "ruhkFuture"
Zonk sounds like he needed to breathe into a paper bag after his Bioware speech.
"Men like sex, thus boobies! Oogaba!" - dejanzie
"Butt hat is my opinion and we all know how far that goes around here." - Demonicmaster
Twitter
Oh, you're right. We've got the website and its info and the prequel book to go on (which I haven't read), so you're right to worry about the storyline because vids won't give you too much of that. I am, however, impressed from what little I've seen about the origin stories (which I believe was this video). That gives me hope for the main plot. They're still putting the time and effort into developing a story and not just boob physics.
Okay, I'm done with this topic. Not really the proper area for this discussion.
Yay for the Conference Call!! (See, somewhat on topic.)
MilkmanDanimal wrote:
NSMike wrote:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/garion333
It may be hard to believe, but it is possible for somebody to still feel underwhelmed by the apparent premise of the game, even after reading through the website, even after viewing all of the video content.
As always, your mileage may vary but, personally, I don't buy into the blame-casting on the marketing campaign; five years of development time (and a general ambivalence towards BioWare's post-BG2 output) makes it hard to look past the iffy character designs and the "Violence" trailer and the E3 presentation. Any concerns are well-founded, in my opinion.
Conversely, the trailer for The Old Republic completely blew me away and I haven't played an MMO since I participated in the original beta for WoW. Go figure.
Xbox Live | Twitter
Wait...when did you and I play Uncharted 2 Certis? I played the beta for like half an hour the other night and I didn't even see you sign in!
Twitter | Flickr | Company
Oh by the way, for those who are interested, I wrote a lengthy essay on my corporate blog talking about the Activision/Brutal Legend thing. I normally don't like to pimp my own stuff but I kind of had this brain dump with this post and I'm interested to see what people think (taking into account that it is long because I wrote it for my blog's audience which isn't into games or the industry at all.) I'm trying to write some more to hone my craft so I welcome feedback, good or bad. It is here for those who feel like checking it out.
Twitter | Flickr | Company
I'm listening to the show now, and I was just about to mention Scribblenauts.
I didn't see anything written about it and heard nothing about it on any podcasts, so I'm surprised to hear you say that it's the darling of the show.
I happened to find out about the game with this video.
http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/scribblenauts-god-vs-the/320265
This is a description of Scribblenauts circling around the web (from Neogaf)
"So listen to this story. I was in the early levels; I didn't quite have an idea of how ridiculously in-depth the database was. I was summoning things like ladders, glasses of water, rayguns, what have you. But I reached a level with zombie robots, and the zombie robots kept killing me. Rayguns didn't work, a torch didn't work, a pickaxe didn't work. In my frustration, I wrote in "Time Machine". And one popped up. What the ****? A smile dawned on my face. I hopped in, and the option was given to me to either travel to the past or the future. I chose past. When I hopped out, there were ****ing dinosaurs walking around. I clicked one, and realized I could RIDE THEM. So I hopped on a ****ing DINOSAUR, traveled back to the present, and stomped the **** out of robot zombies. Did you just read that sentence? Did you really? I ****ING TRAVELED THROUGH TIME AND JUMPED ON A DINOSAUR AND USED IT TO KILL MOTHER***ING ROBOT ZOMBIES. This game is unbelievable. Impossible. There's nothing you can't do."
For my under-appreciated game of the show, I submit Just Cause 2.
The trailer does a good job of making the game look fun, and it's got a logo of a scorpion made of guns.
I avoid online multiplayer because my brain still works.
See, this is the thing that confuses me the most, and maybe it just says something that people really prefer established franchises over new IP. The tons of information on the variety in Dragon Age leaves everyone underwhelmed, but a CG trailer for a Star Wars game that tells you nothing about the game whatsoever and is mostly just fan service coupled with lame Matrix effects has everyone jumping up and down with excitement.
You must be listening to the wrong podcasts and reading the wrong gaming sites. From where I stand, the enthusiast press won't shut up about this game.
I would think the first rule of PR is to ignore forum people, because they vacillate between crazy and liar. - Elysium
Just wanted to correct you guys on the Games on Demand comment. Points are staying.
Thanks for the Darksiders love. i'm really hoping for them to do well with this. This same group are the ones who are developing the 40k MMO.
Gamer Tag: Rantyr