Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 55

Beautiful Katamari, Hellgate London, Demi Grabs a Wii, Brütal Legend, NPDs, What Makes A Game Great?, Fighting Games, Win A Prize Pack with Orange Box! Your Emails and more!

With Shawn taking a break this week the rest of the crew clamp down on what makes a game great. Cory finally gets himself a Wii, the guys gush about Tim Schaeffer's next project and your emails are properly molested. We also launch a new contest this week! Name the GWJ Conference Call rock band and you could win Guitar Hero II, Orange Box and a couple Live Arcade games for the Xbox 360! Deadline for entries in this Saturday afternoon, October 27th.

Want to support the show? Hit the Digg link just above (it's fast and easy to register) or review us on iTunes! Read on for show notes.

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. To enter the contest, email [email protected]!

Sponsor
Liongames.com

  • 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/Outro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

"PodunkStump" Ian Dorsch - 0:25:41
"Los Pistoleros" Ian Dorsch - 0:50:47

Comments

Really enjoying thinking up band names for this contest.
Best contest idea ever.

I'm halfway through the show and it's pretty solid, good job guys =)

I liked fighting games when I was in high school, I would like to say I still do, but I can't think of any good fighting game that has come out since Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast...

I think Capcom sort of killed the genre after releasing so much crap based on Street Fighter, and then Guilty Gear sort of pushed the genre further into the anime-fan kingdom, and everyone sort of followed (DOA and so on...) so you ended up with rehashed gameplay crap that didn't look cool to anyone who wasn't a japanese animation fan.

Unfortunately, The Longest Journey still isn't on GameTap I'm still bummed about it even though I've played it. Should totally be there. It's on Steam, though! $10! For like, $20 you get Dreamfall too.

As for fighting games...

I like the "idea" of a fighting game and if it's really fun I'll play through the arcade mode versus the CPU, but I can never bring myself to play against friends. I'm the type of person who doesn't like to get really competitive with friends, I'd rather play a cooperative game. Even in team-based games like TF2 or CS, I feel bad whenever I end up killing a friend on the other team. This normally only applies to my closest friends, though. The people that I game with the most.

Button Mashers were always laughed at in Fighting game circles.. Lord know I always knew I had an easy win against a button masher.

boogle wrote:

Woohoo, first post.

We... don't really do that here.

Rabbit talking about rubbing feet? Why did everyone go straight to Wii rubbing?

Fighting games:
I think part of the problem was that the market got flooded, and there wasn't really much difference between games except to those who were invested in the genre and probably in a specific franchise. I can see this happening to MMOs -- if it hasn't already begun to happen -- so long as innovation continues to stall out.

Rock Band on 360 vs. "live in Loneliville": I heard that you won't be able to play the tour online. I might still try to send some name ideas.

More later.

If you ever downloaded the Wii Opera browser during the free period you should be able to go into your Wii store and download the updated version for free.

wordsmythe wrote:

We... don't really do that here. :)

Hey, it's not like that's ALL he said!

I'm bummed about the rockband thing. Is it said that I'm putting "getting a second 360" in the same brainspace as "getting a PS3?"

Rabbit,

With a last name of Murdoch, the rock nickname is easy...

Howlin' Mad

Still working on the band name though.

Did I hear Elysium say Diablo 2 looked good on release? Either he's wearing some seriously rose-tinted glasses, or he's think of Diablo, because Diablo 2 looked seriously dated on release.

Also, if you have the urge to buy the orange box again and again, you can give a copy to me. Seriously though, don't you guys have children to feed or something?

Alien Love Gardener wrote:

Also, if you have the urge to buy the orange box again and again, you can give a copy to me. Seriously though, don't you guys have children to feed or something?

Nope that's why i have 2 copies.

I cannot wait to find out what you guys will name our band. Remember that it has to look good on a t-shirt, and sound cool when loose, drunk chicks are yelling it at the concerts.

If it's cool, we're so totally getting T-Shirts for next year's convention season.

Did I hear Elysium say Diablo 2 looked good on release? Either he's wearing some seriously rose-tinted glasses, or he's think of Diablo, because Diablo 2 looked seriously dated on release.

I think I meant Diablo. I remember the debacle with the resolution settings, though it's not like Diablo 2 looked bad ... just dated. Still, that's really a point in favor of how little a top-o-the-line graphics engine has to do with the success of a game like this.

Re: What makes a game good? Metrics. At least it's part of it. Valve uses it. Relic too. Doesn't seem to have worked for Halo 3 as much.

wordsmythe wrote:

Fighting games:
I think part of the problem was that the market got flooded, and there wasn't really much difference between games except to those who were invested in the genre and probably in a specific franchise.

I totally agr... Wait a second! This is what I said, but with different words!

Mex wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

Fighting games:
I think part of the problem was that the market got flooded, and there wasn't really much difference between games except to those who were invested in the genre and probably in a specific franchise.

I totally agr... Wait a second! This is what I said, but with different words!

My words were better!

Demiurge wrote:

I cannot wait to find out what you guys will name our band. Remember that it has to look good on a t-shirt, and sound cool when loose, drunk chicks are yelling it at the concerts.

Both of which will never happen in reality, but will be awesome during our group delusions.

So that I can throw away the scrap paper with these notes:

"360 4 lyfe!" -
I didn't realize that some of that group really was just bashing the Wii's limited selection because of pride. I admitted the whole time that the limited selection was the factor that simply lessened my desire for a Wii to the point where I didn't feel driven to hunt for one. I'm still waiting for the day I see them waiting for me when I casually walk into a store. Luckily, the games I want it for aren't coming out until next year.

"We're pretty good on punctuation." -
Perhaps better than at using prepositions. I'm wondering if maybe you just think you're doing well because I stopped sending PMs to front page authors with grammatical edits.

"Childish" games and their relation to fighters -
Gears is a weak example, because it did have a single-player mode with some modicum of a story arc. TF2 was a better choice. Certainly the play is repetitive and -- outside of strategy -- intellectually shallow. It's not a game that'll strain the limits of one's "emotional intelligence." To some extent, it does get lost in the crowd of generic online shooters. What sets it apart is that it's currently "teh new shiny." Because of that, folks are attracted long enough to realize that it's a fun, polished game. Most fighting games, especially during their prime, didn't stand out very much or for very long. Beyond that, they focused more on "skill" (of a twitchy variety, and for lack of a better term at present) and less on strategy. Certainly a fighter player can study and learn the best ways to attack and defend in different circumstances, but the strategy of TF2 is far more profound. Halo 3's strategy is closer to a fighting game's, but Halo 3 sets itself apart by allowing more customization, and thus stays fresher than the average fighter.

"After a while, it seemed like we were doing the same thing over and over." -
Wait, you had that problem with an MMO? Consider me shocked and awed.

Nancy Drew games -
I know we just introduced "Act Casual," but perhaps we should further explore the softer side of GWJ. I don't think it would be a good idea to have a "games to force on females in your life" column, but perhaps a "games for the non-gamer" slant could offer a broader perspective than our current tableau. I'm not sure that a Flash-based version of Portal (neat as it is) is quite the answer to the all-too-common "Recommend me a game for [non-gamer I am close to]" threads.

wordsmythe wrote:

Perhaps better than at using prepositions.

Is that even a sentence? *neener neener*

fangblackbone wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

Perhaps better than at using prepositions.

Is that even a sentence? *neener neener*

Oh, leave him alone, it's not like he's some sort of professional... word... maker... or something.

fangblackbone wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

Perhaps better than at using prepositions.

Is that even a sentence? *neener neener*

It's a sentence fragment, which is perfectly acceptable in casual conversation.

You want to dance, Juanita?

wordsmythe wrote:


You want to dance, Juanita?
:twisted:

Sniff.

My internet community of choice (what do we call that, like, our Internet Home Farm?) gets into flame wars about grammar.

I'm so proud.

I think there need to be grammatical rules for internet motions, like wink wink or so on.

I move an internet motion that all ungrammatical posts be deleted from the thread.

I'm with Rabbit on his Orange Box hiatus. I have way too many games I have yet to start or finish.

Also, I'm waiting for my Nancy Drew reviews, and from the looks of this, you guys have a lot of games to get through. By the way, these are just the PC games.

subaltern wrote:

I'm with Rabbit on his Orange Box hiatus.

Yeah I could totally see you on that TF2 hiatus last night, as your TF2 played time crept past "24 hours."

Team Fortress 2, the true definition of digital crack. If I could reduce it to a liquid form, chances are I would probably inject it into myself. I should have said that I need to go on hiatus, or to rehab.

wordsmythe wrote:

It's a sentence fragment, which is perfectly acceptable in casual conversation.

You want to dance, Juanita?

Perhaps, not me. =P

fangblackbone wrote:

Perhaps, not me.

*twitch*