Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 72

Lost Odyssey, Sins of a Solar Empire, Devil May Cry 4 Finished, Emails, Emails, Emails and more!

It's all hands on deck this week as we do a show dedicated to your awesome emails! Every topic under the sun is discussed because you guys are just so damn smart. We also have some fresh tunes from the wonderful Ian "Podunk" Dorsch!

The live show plans fell through thanks to Skype server problems. We'll try again during a weeknight at some point soon!

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.

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree
Audioworks

"Carving Away Stone" Ian Dorsch - 0:26:21
"Washaway" Ian Dorsch - 1:03:59

Comments

Here's OGRE for all the people who aren't Rabbit.

Great episode, probably one of my favorites ever, but why is that only the second or third time you've had all five of you on?

Because we actually all hate each other. Plus, it's actually quite difficult to manage on Skype in terms of not stepping all over each other. And it makes it more work for Rob to edit. And we suck. And we all hate each other.

Don't feel bad. I don't have rock band either. Nor Guitar Hero 3, though I do have GH1 and 2.

Valve getting bought by Microsoft? Not likely.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun wrote:

RPS: I have a friend (an idiot) who is determined that in six months Valve will be owned by either Microsoft or EA"…

Gabe: Tell him that I'm not interested in buying either one of them.

Of the Canadian IP available, I'd love to see a Red Green game.

A sandbox game where your only tools are duct tape and a couple of old Reliants.

The commentary on Devil May Cry 4 was great for laughs. I needed that, as I slog through this increasingly worse week. Thanks!

Thanks for answering my question. Unfortunately I guess in my rush to send it out I missed my point. I guess I was wondering why it is that not enough companies include chapter selection as a feature and require you to find workarounds like Rabbid has with multiple saves. We are so far along in the medium why is this not standard? Even DVD movies have a scene selection.

Old Man Grant wrote:

Rabbid

From now on, that's what I'm calling him. I like!

I am hoping you don't have the live show on during the week because that means I can't come onto the channel due to the time difference and whisper Rosebud again!!

May just have to do that audio email after all.

Very great episode guys, even though you all ...

rabbit wrote:

suck. And we all hate each other.

Cya guys in Badlands!

Great Episode. Fantastic discussions. Everyone seemed to be on point.

Also, great new tunes Podunk. I especially was nodding along to "Washaway" Ian Dorsch - 1:03:59.

samfisher wrote:

I am hoping you don't have the live show on during the week because that means I can't come onto the channel due to the time difference and whisper Rosebud again!!

May just have to do that audio email after all.

Make a soundboard and i'll be sure to put you in if I am able to ask a question on the live show. "Roooosebuud..."

So what's the problem with colorblind teams in Halo 3?

IMAGE(http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/9234/colorhaloks1.th.jpg)

Team mates have triangles over their heads and a callsign; enemies either have nothing or their full names.

Need an RPG main character that has full knowledge of the world they're in, with no assumptions that the player is up to speed, with very little prologue: Shephard in Mass Effect. How about that, a developer that doesn't speak down to the player. This is how good storytelling is done. Amnesia is an indicator of a poor storyteller.

I loves me some Ian "Podunk" Dorsch.

Chromehounds had an awesome implementation of a commander role. Now if it had only allowed more than 20 players in a clan.

Damn it, thinking about it made me want a Chromehounds 2. Please, From Software, forget about Armored Core and make Chromehounds into your main franchise.

Edit: Oh, and the Mac Skype client doesn't support skypecasts yet. Booo!

Need an RPG main character that has full knowledge of the world they're in, with no assumptions that the player is up to speed, with very little prologue: Shephard in Mass Effect.

You've got a point here.

This is how good storytelling is done. Amnesia is an indicator of a poor storyteller.

I was about to make exactly this point, but Shawn decided to pull last word!

Oh, and the Mac Skype client doesn't support skypecasts yet.

Boy, don't we know it. You should hear how Cory cries.

Elysium wrote:
Oh, and the Mac Skype client doesn't support skypecasts yet.

Boy, don't we know it. You should hear how Cory cries.

Well, at least we now understand why you chose skypecasting to be the technology of choice. After all, what is more fun than making Demiurge cry?

Also, nice Freudian slip when you were trying to say "evil empire," Certis.

PC gaming, the new elitist hobby for those with dispensable income, few social connections and a technology fetish.

Whaddya mean new?

Elysium wrote:

Whaddya mean new?

Shhhh, we're trying to market here, MARKET!

First off, I'd love to play a Red Green game. But only if Harold is involved. The show just wasn't the same after he left. (Could we bribe him back with an entire bag of... after dinner mints?)

What I'd really love to see is a game based on The Tick. I was thinking if they modeled it after Hulk: Ultimate Destruction it would be simply awesome. SPOON! They'd have to get the voice actors from the show, though. Preferably the animated show, but the live action one would be okay too.

Also, why has it occurred to nobody to make a game out of The A-Team? It could be like Marvel Ultimate Alliance or Freedom Force, or even Freedom Fighters (four characters, user picks the one to control directly) mixed with some GTA elements (drive the van around a big, live Los Angelos looking for people to help and jobs to do-- you have to switch to play BA if you want to drive the van.) You'd have to avoid the military, of course, and there could be puzzles that you'd need to solve in order to complete missions (build a weapon out of the materials in this box, or build a tank out of this car and some other spare parts, drug BA to get him into an airplane, etc.)

The big difficulty there would be to have infinite ammo, but not actually kill anyone. I guess they'd have to make the guns shoot q-tips like in Devil May Cry 4. I'd picture a shooting scheme like in Chili Con Carnage-- except everything blows up but the bad-guys.

I didn't get a chance to say it on the show but I would love to see a really well done The Maxx game. That would rock! The Comic was pretty crazy and great!

Woo! Thanks for reading my email on the air. Although it seems we disagree on some points with regard to Grand Theft Auto and the growing problems I see with direction-less sandbox style games. Although I think you guys missed part of my core complaint, which is; if the developers spent more time refining the core game play and making the base story good and engrossing and coherent (as I feel it was in GTA3 and Vice City) instead of glomming more and more subgames into an ever growing map I think that the game would be more enjoyable for all parties involved. I'm not totally poo-pooing the "side-games" rather pointing out that all the fuss about "emergent open-ended-sandbox" gameplay seems to finally be showing through in the form of generally less focused games which end up feeling pretty flat in the end. By the very nature of making the game as open ended as GTA:SA much of the plot was barely strung together and felt about as cohesive as your average Choose Your Own Adventure title. Imagine instead that GTA offered a solid 6-12 hour linear game in the style of COD4 or HL2 while maintaining a similar level of open-endedness as we saw in Vice City. Basically the trend now is only going on towards proving the old addage that there is indeed such a thing as too much of a good thing.

As a quick aside, I was chatting with one of the editors of Game Revolution a few weeks ago and I made the observation that GTA evolved directly from the old Atari game "APB - All Points Bulletin" in what I described, at the time of the original GTA release, as a genuinely funny spoof send up of APB. Funny how far that nut has fallen from the tree in retrospect

-Dave in Oakland

Danjo Olivaw wrote:

So what's the problem with colorblind teams in Halo 3?

Crap. You're right of course, and now I'm trying to remember what game I'm thinking of where the armor color was the main differentiator.

rabbit wrote:
Danjo Olivaw wrote:

So what's the problem with colorblind teams in Halo 3?

Crap. You're right of course, and now I'm trying to remember what game I'm thinking of where the armor color was the main differentiator.

Halo 1, I believe, had less prominent HUD indicators of who was on your team and who wasn't, so that may be what you are thinking of.

Hoop'n'Stick 2 Deathmatch?

Ogre...I thought he was talking about Ogre from the movie "Nerds"....lol

Skype just lost a lot of business thanks to us.

Edit: And why am I picturing Mystic Violet like some kind of evil Bond girl, wielding a chainsaw while laughing maniacally?

boogle wrote:

PC gaming, the new elitist hobby for those with dispensable income, few social connections and a technology fetish.

Dead on, except I'd change "few social connections" to "some social connections". You know. Just to make us feel better.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:

Valve getting bought by Microsoft? Not likely.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun wrote:

RPS: I have a friend (an idiot) who is determined that in six months Valve will be owned by either Microsoft or EA"…

Gabe: Tell him that I'm not interested in buying either one of them.

That's one of my favorite quotes. I love Gabe.