re: spoiler section and Mass Effect not having a proper antagonist...

(warning : ME2 spoilers)

Great ME2 discussion.

Casey Hudson has been doing the rounds and appearing on quite a few podcasts. On one show (4 guys 1 up maybe in not sure) he said that certain characters from ME1 were moved to one side in ME2 because they were important to the over all story and needed to be alive for ME3.

Podcast wise 4 guys 1up is good and so is Active time babble.

The spoiler section starts right after the official show ends. Stop listening when you hear the outtro music.

Can somebody please explain what the deal is with the drunken gamers? I don't listen to them so I don't know what is going on.
Thanks.

Re: the "unwinnable" fight in Dragon Age:

Yes, if this is the encounter in question, I think that Dragon Age handles it perfectly.

One thing the email glosses over is that the fight is obviously designed to be lost; upon death you're taken to a cutscene instead of the typical "YOU SUCK" loading screen. It's very clear that failure was always an option.

What I love about this fight is that it can be won, and the game isn't "broken" in any way if you do so (as the email seemed to imply). How many games hand you instant defeat via a cutscene? Or at the hands of a boss monster with a million hitpoints that you can't scratch? Dragon Age wants none of that bullsh*t. It lets you be the badass that you are, at least in this particular case.

Certis, that experience of over stimulation with the audio, that's what autistic people experience. I'm not pointing this out to be flippant, but that maybe you can take that experience and apply it to the current discussions about autism ... if you are even interested in that sort of thing. Just a thought.

I haven't listened to the episode yet, but I would just like to chip in with some positive feedback for editing the show so that those spoiler discussions are at the end of the podcast.

I always get a bit irritated whenever podcasters (Podcast People?) just preface those kind of comments with a quick "spoiler alert - skip ahead six or seven minutes or whatever" because I don't really want to mess around with my mp3 player while I'm driving (or even in general) and, even if I do feel like doing it, there's no guarantees that the discussion actually went that exact length of time.

It was pitch-perfect for the BioShock "spoiler" discussion a few shows back -- which was hardly topical anyway, since it had been so long since that game released -- and I definitely like it in this case, especially since I haven't really played ME1 or ME2.

True. I wasn't so much trying to say that you had an autistic experience, just that you might have more insight into autism now. Clearly with an autistic uncle you already have that. I should have added "similar" instead of saying that what you experienced is what autistic individuals experience.

Anyway, perhaps I did read too much into what you said on the podcast.

This is the case I use that Cory mentioned. No windows or any fancy blinking lights, just a nice brushed metal and sound proofing inside. Cooler Master Silio 500.

Wanna see some ugly cases? Try these.

I think Sean and Shawn are as bad at video game dating as Cory.

Edit: I'm also disappointed that neither of them talked up Mordin. I was all prepared to be annoyed by him ("For God's sake, take a breath!") but he turned out to be one of the more interesting, complex, and humorous characters in the whole game.

I was also a little surprised by this. Not to mention, the cost shook me a bit; he said $700, right? Not even including a hard drive? Does that include Windows? I can't really figure why you'd need to spend that much.

About two years ago I got a Dell dedicated for gaming, a Q6600 system (then pretty high end) with 3 GB RAM, a DVD burner, and a totally reasonable 500 GBish drive. I paid $350 plus tax for the machine, slapped in a $125 video card, and I was good to go. I could run every existing game at high settings without any trouble.

Last year, I noticed that some newer games had issues at maxed out settings, so I slapped in a new $125 video card and I've been fine.

I think there are some real misconceptions about how much horsepower you really need and how much money you really need to spend. The iMacs should actually be quite capable.

Re: game audio -

Last year I came in to some birthday money and bought Astro Gaming's A40 audio system; the headphones, amp, whole 9 yards. I figured if I'm going to go there, I'm gonna go whole hog. Also, I'm an audio stickler. (I work in voice over.)

I love the whole thing. I figure the only drawbacks would be the cabling, (going to get some extra long optical cables to fix some of that), and a little lackluster bass. (But if you want bass, you can get those Dr. Dre beats things for a similar amount. Not that you'll hear much more than the bass, but if that's your thing...then again, the iPod doesn't exactly provide the power those things probably need for accurate sound produciton.)

But the downplayed bass is so you can cleanly hear the mids and highs, something necessary in gaming, especially the online competitive space. I was amazed at what I could hear with the A40's. The amount of detail as well as the accurate surround production is fantastic. I was picking up things in Modern Warfare, Fallout 3 and ODST I hadn't heard before. They were like playing whole new games. (especially online multi. hearing those punks coming around behind you is a great asset.)

I got the cans out of necessity, (don't annoy the wife or wake the toddler) and found true joy in them. Never want to go back.