Brink, Age of Empires Online Beta, Mortal Kombat, Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword, Harbingers of Things to Come? Your Emails and more!
This week Shawn, Elysium, Cory and Rob Zacny tackle a bunch of games and whether or not they're harbingers of things to come. Or it's an game doldrums intervention for Shawn.
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Game Thing Daily
Good Old Games
Brink
Age of Empires Online
Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword
Mount and Blade: Warband
Mortal Kombat
Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks
Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword - Battle theme - http://www.taleworlds.com/ - 0:33:25
Age of Empires Online - Victory theme - http://ageofempiresonline.com/ - 0:49:26
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I actually am going through a bit of PC gaming boredom, which may be because I've beaten most of the new games I've gotten since I built my computer (in 5.5years) more than a year ago now. Thankfully I've got a huge collection of console games to work through and I just got Valkyria Chronicles in the mail yesterday. After 2.5hrs, I'm already hooked, but still afraid to try the English voice track. Especially after listening to the decidedly kid focused voicing of Gotcha Force on the Gamecube recently. Thankfully this one has a separate volume control for voices.
Backloggery
The English track is better than the Japanese track. Or so I thought.
How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?
MilkmanDanimal wrote:You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.
Ditto... Section 8 and Brink both seemed like great games as well, but dammit I got bored in almost no time flat. I'm so sick of the point and shoot galleries more than anything though, and it most definitely isn't just me getting sick of games. Crysis 2 was in reality a well done shooter, but I was just utterly bored about half way through. It just feels like there isn't much creativity at all.
Portal 2 was mentioned as another FPS, but to me isn't an FPS at all, it's a puzzle/adventure game. I did enjoy it thoroughly. LA Noire is definitely a game going in the right direction. Why we can't have more first person games that don't revolve around only shooting stuff is a bit frustrating, but maybe LA Noire will change things.
I can't really think of any FPS' that I'm holding out hope for right now... possibly Rage.
Edit: Actually Prey 2 sounds like it might have some pretty creative ideas, and I'm definitely curious about it....
I'm interested in, but uncertain about, Rage. Prey 2 looks like it may be very cool though.
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Well, I'll give it a whirl. Hopefully the wife doesn't strangle me just for thinking about it.
Backloggery
I'd just like to take a moment to note that I'm quite happy playing games on Windows Phone 7. It's still far, far behind what's on iOS, but it's clear that Microsoft is supporting game development on WP7 in a big way, and I'm excited to see what else gets released down the line.
Professionally offended. Does not understand jokes. Needs a man to explain them to me.
Massively Multiplayer Online Games that don't play like WoW:
Dance Battle Audition
Grand Chase
Free Style
As for Certis' ennui, I'm a little into the view that he's burned out playing shooter games and similar such releases because for some reason, that's all he's been playing. He does make a point of trying to get out there and play different games, but perhaps the games he's been playing aren't different enough.
I mean, has he tried The Munchables on Wii? I mean, seriously. Game's got poor production values, but the basic game design's pretty okay. How about a game of Sudoku? A Dora sliding puzzle game?
The last time I got burned out on a genre or felt like a burned out on games in general, I went back to the real, real basics. Super Mario Brothers. Legend of Kage. Galaga. Snake. Asteroid (actually, Space Miner). Doom. Then I went out and tried every game that was NOT like those games.
Hated most of them after a few minutes, but I found a few that I really liked, and rediscovered an enjoyment for something as basic as Battleship.
What's interesting for little jaded old me in the rest of 2011?
Rage
Anno 2070
Top Spin 4 (for the motion controllers, natch)
inFamous 2
Skyward Sword
Diablo 3
Civilization Network
"...mahal ko ang longganisa!" - Demosthenes
Especially if you understand a bit of Japanese. The English translation takes a lot of liberties with ithw text, including some things that actually change what's actually being said.
Buncha fun haters around here...
dimmerswitch wrote:When you really get down to it, isn't a hearse really just an unsuccessful ambulance?
I'm playing old Sega Genesis RPGs on my iPhone lately. I just finished Phoenix Wright on it.
I don't know where that leaves me.
Words... are a big deal.
Jill Lapore wrote:Editing is one of the great inventions of civilization.
Yeah, I understand enough from watching anime and such to know what they're saying in Japanese isn't exactly what the English subtitles say.
It leaves me very confused. Since when was Phoenix Wright an RPG... on the SEGA Genesis?
Backloggery
I recently finished Ace Attorney. Now I'm on Phantasy Star II, with Shining Force on deck.
Words... are a big deal.
Jill Lapore wrote:Editing is one of the great inventions of civilization.
I would love to play Shining Force on my Android. Is that a possibility?
Q-Stone2E3: SallyN is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.
Wembley wrote:The quickest way to SallyNasty's heart is through a collectibles guide.
I couldn't tell you. Sega's got a whole suite of titles on the App Store, but I don't know if they've gone to Android yet. There are Genesis emulators for Droid, but that's a different legal footing.
Words... are a big deal.
Jill Lapore wrote:Editing is one of the great inventions of civilization.
That is what I was afraid of, and I was posing the question to the whole of GWJ in hopes that there was an answer.
Regardless, I just dl'd the netflix app on my droid and it works awesome, so that brings me happy.
Q-Stone2E3: SallyN is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.
Wembley wrote:The quickest way to SallyNasty's heart is through a collectibles guide.
How about fallout 2 on the iPhone? Would love that!!!
Really enjoyed the podcast, as it hit on something that I hope is attaining some sort of momentum with devs - the general boredom with scripted linear gameplay. WoW is the obvious example, as well as CoD for the FPS set. I really enjoyed Crisis (the first) for its ability to attack areas crowded with enemies from different angles and strategies. I see Mass Effect and Dragon Age as pure money grabs after the complete dumbing down of the RPG elements in the 2nd coming of both these titles. Mass Effect 3 was going to be released this year - as a stand-alone!
Also can we please retire the use of the words 'meme' and 'trope' by Cory/Rabbit (I can't tell them apart in the podcast)? How about 'theme' - good word that isn't hipster-cool but gets the point across so much better.
I don't mind them using the appropriate words to describe things. Nothing hipster about correct use of the English language.
Q-Stone2E3: SallyN is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.
Wembley wrote:The quickest way to SallyNasty's heart is through a collectibles guide.
If people can't say 'meme' and 'trope' then what words must they use when they mean 'meme' and 'trope?'
Maybe they should use the definitions, 'An element of a culture or behavior that may be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, esp. imitation' and 'a storytelling shorthand for a concept that the audience will recognize and understand instantly.'
Seems a little cumbersome to me.
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Haven't you heard? Everything is hipster now. There is not a single difference left in thought or behavior between human beings that does not mark them as hipsters to one another. The word is like instant condensed postmodern "othering" that everyone keeps in a spray can, ready to hose down the world with it at random.
Website | Twittah | Tumblr
You know that critical games language everyone says doesn't exist? They're part of it. They're not "hipster" words; they're academic words.
Words... are a big deal.
Jill Lapore wrote:Editing is one of the great inventions of civilization.
Man, I've got to get some of that and bring it up to Wrigleyville.
Words... are a big deal.
Jill Lapore wrote:Editing is one of the great inventions of civilization.
To me, hipsters are people who wear skinny jeans and have inappropriate amounts of angst - and nothing will change my opinion on the matter.
But, whatever.
Q-Stone2E3: SallyN is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.
Wembley wrote:The quickest way to SallyNasty's heart is through a collectibles guide.
To be fair, Corey is a total hipster. Look at his Android hate.
No Sally, you're thinking of Emos.
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+2 to your Google skills for looking up the definition.
Last year it was 'jumping the shark', this year its trope/meme....and hipster. All used too often as catch-all's but still make you sound current, despite the often misapplication of the terms.
MrDeVil909's brilliant that way. And wicked. And cool. And hot. And awesome. And rad.
"...mahal ko ang longganisa!" - Demosthenes
First time I ever suspected Rob of trying to get Certis to quit the podcast so he could take his place.
Everything that starts out as a cultural revolution ends up as capitalist routine.
-David Brooks || Steam: Demonbox
I think that the word "meme" has mutated a bit from its original meaning; and "trope" is kind of cliché.
The definition of "meme" has morphed a bit, but that's the nature of words in a living language—it's the sort of thing that keeps my lexicographer friends employed.
"Trope" wasn't an exciting word when I learned it in junior high English class. Oxford says it's been in use in English since the 16th century. I don't see why we should expect it to be funky fresh now.
Words... are a big deal.
Jill Lapore wrote:Editing is one of the great inventions of civilization.
Could the gaming boredom be due to a large number of games coming out now that have to be referenced by an index number. There has been a new Mario game every year since I started gaming.
I loved Fallout 3, but if I have to play Fallout XIII: Trip to the Mall it won't be a good scene.
Why thank you. I wanted to get them right just for you. Funnily enough the best definition for the relevant use of trope didn't come from a dictionary, but TVTropes. It also looks like a word with a meaning that's shifted quite a lot.
Now you're making me blush.
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I'd say that the meaning is still quite similar but the usage has changed a little. When Dawkins coined the word he was essentially using it to describe the way that a concept can be transmitted and mutated - and thus undergo natural selection - in the same way that a gene can.
(I think. It's been about 10 years since I read The Selfish Gene.)
First thing my grandfather taught me was "Don't let any hellportals near your junk."
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