Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 89

Metal Gear Solid 4, Video Game Buy In, An Interview With John Carmack, A Missive From The District 97, Your Emails and more!

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 [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.

Metal Gear Solid 4
Age of Conan
id Software
Fireball Island

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Show credits

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

Comments

Interview with JC... ...wow!

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

boogle wrote:

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

Yup. I see it too! Ninja fix!

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

Mystic Violet wrote:
boogle wrote:

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

Yup. I see it too! Ninja fix!

Same!

John Carmack? Really?

In for John Carmack : O

Mystic Violet wrote:
boogle wrote:

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

Yup. I see it too! Ninja fix!

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!"

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!

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.

*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.

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.

Dibs on the sixth seat at GenCon. Called it.

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

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.

F*cking awesome, you guys.

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.

Was that a Flight Simulator mention I heard?

BEST. INTERVIEW. EVER.

McChuck wrote:

Dibs on the sixth seat at GenCon. Called it. :)

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

Carmack rules. Way to go rabbit! Great interview!

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.

Rat Boy wrote:

Was that a Flight Simulator mention I heard? :drink:

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.

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 ...

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.

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.

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

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

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!