Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 193

All Things E3 With Special Guest Chris Remo and more!

This week Cory, Shawn and special Guest Chris Remo talk about a ton of games they saw at E3 and the general experience of being at the big show. No bonus content this week, we're too tired and cranky. If you want to submit a question or comment call in to our voicemail line at (612) 284-4563.

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. You can also submit a question or comment call in to our voicemail line at (612) 284-4563!

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Aurora - Shatter the Official Video Game Soundtrack - http://sidhe.bandcamp.com/ - 1:21:14

Comments

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I believe that was Crysis 2, but I'm also having trouble finding any articles about it.

Ah, yeah, I think you are right. I got my fancy-pants-graphics shooters mixed up. Apologies for disparaging id incorrectly.

Don't worry Remo, I got the "I can't leave without my buddy Superfly" joke

I wish I could get interested in "Epic Mickey." I just can't get around that it's Disney. I've heard Kingdom Hearts is a great series too but it's freaking Mickey Mouse. I'm a curmudgeon, I know. I guess it's kind of like watching G.I. Joe or Thundercats if you have absolutely zero nostalgia for either and no love for "camp." At that point, it's merely an awful cartoon. To me, Mickey will always be little kid stuff. I'd feel childish playing it.

Not crazy about the word "Epic" in there, either. Seems like one of those things the kids are overusing these days.

On the Civ5 Flanking question @ :29 into this video I see "Flanking Bonus 15%"

http://pc.ign.com/dor/objects/62125/sid-meiers-civilization-v/videos/e310_civ5_trl_gameplayvideo_61710.html?show=hi

LobsterMobster wrote:

I wish I could get interested in "Epic Mickey." I just can't get around that it's Disney. I've heard Kingdom Hearts is a great series too but it's freaking Mickey Mouse. I'm a curmudgeon, I know. I guess it's kind of like watching G.I. Joe or Thundercats if you have absolutely zero nostalgia for either and no love for "camp." At that point, it's merely an awful cartoon. To me, Mickey will always be little kid stuff. I'd feel childish playing it.

Not crazy about the word "Epic" in there, either. Seems like one of those things the kids are overusing these days.

That's unfortunate. Why would you feel uncomfortable playing a child's game or toy? It's not like we live that long. You could be dead tomorrow. This is understandable if you're an adolescent or a young child. Children naturally want to become grown-up and feel grown up. It'd chagrin them to be caught reading Little Red Riding Hood.

However, once grown, I felt no special need to eschew children's toys. I still have a Nerf gun and a water gun, and I'll use those for fun if I find the opportunity for them. If I found Matchbox cars interesting anymore, you'd bet your bottom I'd buy as much as I could afford. I feel no shame buying and playing Lego sets for myself.

It's especially ironic given that video games still have, in the eyes of some of society, a childish quality. I've never let that stop me.

Why deprive yourself of a great experience, just because it was designed for kids? If it's great, why not? Harry Potter is a children's series and I felt no shame reading it, nor do I feel any shame in recommending it for reading for people of all ages, even though it's penned as a child's book series.

I do not aim to criticize your choices. I simply want to pose questions that I think may allow you to overcome this hurdle. Not playing Kingdom Hearts is a shame. It really is an excellent game.

Amoebic wrote:

I wonder how much of this is a chicken-or-the-egg; I think the reason so many more people play online vs locally because the whole 360 system is set up to encourage separate people purchasing separate consoles and playing separate games - together.

That's part of it, but another part I think is that some types of games, most notably shooters and racers, are just plain better if each player has their own screen. As a general rule, such games are going to suffer in splitscreen, where not only does each player have half to a quarter of the screen real estate, but the system has to make compromises in frame rate and performance to render each view individually.

Multiplayer games in which players share a screen, such as fighters, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, etc., are generally better on the couch where you don't have to fiddle with headsets in order to talk to each other and lag is never an issue.

I can't speak for anyone else, but from what I see on the ground level, multiplayer anything is almost universally better on the local level as opposed to online. I do not like playing online shooters for this reason. If the lag doesn't kill you, the relative lack of community will. It's a completely different experience to rent out space at a LAN shop, play CS or whatever for a few hours, then cap the night with dinner somewhere. It's a very social experience.

Of course, I live in Asia, where the population density is so high you can't move without bumping into someone else. It's trivial to find someone to play with, and it's practically a social necessity to befriend all your neighbors, if only for security reasons.

Oh yeah, all else being equal, getting each player's screen and system into the same space so that you can have the best of both worlds is the ideal solution. It's just the logistical nightmare involved that makes it something best saved for special occasions, at least in parts of the world where LAN cafes are not common.

College was a great time for that sort of play: any given dorm room had at least two gaming-capable PCs LAN'd together, and a lot of guys I knew had their apartments constantly set up with multiple Xboxes system linked together.

I completely, totally hear you on the screen sharing front. As an avid shooter fan, I loathe how split-screen is usually handled and how it really hampers enjoyment. I'm just pipedreaming for a sophisticated hardware/software solution that allows for dual monitor/television adaptation, LAN access, or other various adjustments to console machines

I dream for that day, but that day is certainly not today.

Amoebic wrote:

I completely, totally hear you on the screen sharing front. As an avid shooter fan, I loathe how split-screen is usually handled and how it really hampers enjoyment. I'm just pipedreaming for a sophisticated hardware/software solution that allows for dual monitor/television adaptation, LAN access, or other various adjustments to console machines

I dream for that day, but that day is certainly not today.

All you need is one of these

Chairman_Mao wrote:
Amoebic wrote:

I completely, totally hear you on the screen sharing front. As an avid shooter fan, I loathe how split-screen is usually handled and how it really hampers enjoyment. I'm just pipedreaming for a sophisticated hardware/software solution that allows for dual monitor/television adaptation, LAN access, or other various adjustments to console machines

I dream for that day, but that day is certainly not today.

All you need is one of these

Will you give me one if I swear fealty?

Flying_Norseman wrote:

Could we get some sort of visual cue like a thumbs up or thumbs down on the podcast post if Rabbit is going to be on or not? It saves us from the crushing depression we feel when the podcast starts up and he isn't on. Not that you other folks are bad by any means -- but just not Rabbit.

Maybe a Rabbit icon in red with an x through it when he is not on and a green shiny one when he is on? Just a thought.

Check's in the mail.

Love the show, Remo is the best.

Here comes the nitpick, though!

To argue Mario Galaxy is some huge reinvention is silly. That game is Mario64 except they solved the camera problem. Cleverly enough, they did it by redesigning the world rather than assuming that the player wants more control over the camera. They zigged where the rest of the industry zagged on that issue and came up with a winner.

Beyond that? Pretty much every mechanic from Mario64 remains, basically untouched.

So if Zelda can radically improve one bad trait from the series while leaving the rest alone (in this case it's: make the combat more interesting without making it more technical), it will be doing *exactly* what Mario Galaxy did. For you guys to be sitting around hashing out how you don't like the specifics of the IP ("Link starts in a town, then goes to a dungeon, YAWN") really feels like people who aren't actually talking about the changes -- or people who think motion controls can't fundamentally improve an established series.

HockeyJohnston wrote:

To argue Mario Galaxy is some huge reinvention is silly. That game is Mario64 except they solved the camera problem. Cleverly enough, they did it by redesigning the world rather than assuming that the player wants more control over the camera. They zigged where the rest of the industry zagged on that issue and came up with a winner.

Beyond that? Pretty much every mechanic from Mario64 remains, basically untouched.

I'm with you on the camera, which is one of the more subtle (and clever) design impacts from the move into outer space, but I can't follow along for the rest here. Super Mario Galaxy is a mechanically rich game that integrates the older and familiar platforming mechanics of the 3D Mario lineage with many new ideas, some of which play off of older conventions from the 2D Mario entries. (e.g. Ice and Fire Flowers, the various suits)

The major difference, mechanically, is the traversal through outer space via launch stars; with a quick flick of the wrist, Mario is sent flying into the sky to the next planetoid. It stands out as a remarkable bit of positive reinforcement for motion control, rewarding one simple flick of the wrist with the cinematic flair of Mario's flight.

And, though they may not sound like much, the launch stars have massive design implications on 3D Mario gameplay. Where Mario 64 and Sunshine relied on more methodical exploration of a larger 3D space, Galaxy's traversal allows the player to run through a rapid succession of smaller 3D platforming segments, each one punctuated by a launch star that gives the player a quick breather. As a result, the pacing throughout the game is considerably faster than the previous 3D Mario games, ending up much closer to the feel of the early NES games.

Super Mario Galaxy isn't perfect. There are moments when the game retreats a bit into the older Mario 3D gameplay and, perhaps not coincidentally, the camera gets a little fussier and difficulty seems to spike into less enjoyable territory. Other minor hiccups, like the iffy Spring Suit controls and some wonky gravity judgments during direct interplanetary jumps, pop up here and there. But, on the whole, the game thrives on a faster pace and a greater wealth of mechanics for the player to explore. It's certainly not as important as Super Mario 64, but I'd say that it is definitely a different game...and perhaps even a better one.

Just listened to this week's show. I'm taking your advice and ignoring Portal 2 until it comes out. I saw the minute-long E3 trailer and I am appropriately psyched. RPS had some new stuff posted about Portal 2 today but I (reluctantly, with the utmost difficulty) ignored it. I guess I'll go re-watch that teaser trailer to get my fix...for the next six (plus) months.

cooooooooooooooool

I started reading that as phonetic code.

wordsmythe wrote:

I started reading that as phonetic code.

You've been watching Rubicon?

Just too much time reading passwords over the phone.

wordsmythe wrote:

Just too much time reading passwords over the phone.

Ever since I Tangoed in the Sierra in November I've wanted to learn the Foxtrot from a bloke called Mike in a Hotel in India called The Juliet.

Maq wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

Just too much time reading passwords over the phone.

Ever since I Tangoed in the Sierra in November I've wanted to learn the Foxtrot from a bloke called Mike in a Hotel in India called The Juliet.

Bravo, to the victor goes the Oscar (also, "bloke": you're not a Yankee then?).

Gravey wrote:
Maq wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

Just too much time reading passwords over the phone.

Ever since I Tangoed in the Sierra in November I've wanted to learn the Foxtrot from a bloke called Mike in a Hotel in India called The Juliet.

Bravo, to the victor goes the Oscar (also, "bloke": you're not a Yankee then?).

Is there an echo in here? You can't use the same joke twice.