Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 243

The Witcher 2, Hunted: The Demon's Forge, Dead Nation (PS3 Freebies), Frozen Synapse, Bold (Wrong) E3 Predictions, Average Games and more!

This week Shawn, Julian, Cory and Elysium make their E3 predictions now so you can tell just how right or wrong they are in real time!

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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CastMedium
Game Thing Daily
Good Old Games

Hunted: The Demon's Forge
The Witcher 2
Frozen Synapse

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Over My Shoulder - Chroma - http://sgxmusic.com/ - 28:06

Coactive (Short Edit) - Chroma - http://sgxmusic.com/ - 50:42

Comments

Darn! That's a hell of an agenda for this one. Do I listen to the CC goodness now or do I save it for my 2h drive back home on Friday? Decisions, decisions, decisions...

Dead Nation isn't really a twin stick shooter (Burn Zombie Burn, Robotron, Geometry Wars, Smash TV, Mutant Storm), it's more a latter day gauntlet clone which has twin stick controls.

Here, I have taken this hair and sliced it into many, many slivers.

Interesting little psychological insight into Cory and Shaun in re the Hunted. Griffin actually gave the game 3 and a half stars. Cory remembered 4, Shaun 3. Hmmmmmm.

Shaun is a realist/pragmatist and Cory is an idealist? I have no clue. I'm clearly bored at work since there aren't any conferences to watch today.

Poor Cory.. this episode would have gone better for him if he had been camped out in Rob Zacny's lap

I picked up inFamous and Dead Nation as well. I'd actually played and beaten inFamous before on rental, but liked it so much that I'm playing through it a second time. Great game, for sure.

I'd liken Dead Nation more to Alien Swarm. You can "place your bullets" rather than firing them willy nilly if you want, though if you use something like an SMG, it can seem more like a twin stick shooter. Those bullets run out, though, so you have to pay attention to your ammo (your stock gun has unlimited ammo, and is upgradeable).

I'm pleased with both these games!

garion333 wrote:

Shaun is a realist/pragmatist and Cory is an idealist? I have no clue.

I'd agree with that.

Cory, In the beginning of the episode were you talking about Happy the Hobo from the show Happy's Place that aired on Fox in the afternoons?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy%27s_Place

I have no problem playing mediocre games sometimes, but usually try to wait to pick those up months or years after release when I can get them much cheaper. I do this because I'm an unrepentant PS3 trophy whore; although a lazy, attention-span-deprived, and somewhat time-pressed one who prefers to get the low hanging bronze "you completed the tutorial" trophies of quick single runs through multiple titles than spend a bajillion hours hunting down every goddamn hidden treasure from a single game.

Or as I prefer to term it: a connoisseur of shallowly cheap achievements from deeply cheap games...

Case in point: I recently bought Alpha Protocol and Saints Row 2 for PS3 for ~$7 each...

I've actually started enjoying my gaming (and TV, books and movies) more since I've stopped caring about the quality of whatever I'm playing. If it looks fun, I start playing. If it gets boring, I stop.

For instance, yesterday I read Robopocalypse. Was it the greatest thing I've ever read? I honestly don't care, it was great. I had a great time reading it. If I tried to dissect it before purchasing, or even afterwards, it will become less enjoyable. It's a pretty good book and I had a good time, I'm okay with not going deeper than that.

I feel like I have a pretty good innate sense of whether or not a piece has depth. If it has depth, I don't mind analyzing and gushing over it. If it doesn't though, I've learned to just sit back and enjoy the ride. Why pick apart something and decry it as "mediocre" if you're enjoying it? Just enjoy it! If you're not enjoying it, why bother?

The need to comment on something can sometimes ruin what we're commenting about in the first place.

You guys went to that rabbit thing last week and didn't go to E3?

I wield Rasputin like powers.

There's a great mod for The Witcher 2, adds in a junk filter and options to filter by weight.

I can't link yet, but go to witchernexus dot com /downloads/file.php?id=87 or search for Panel Tweaks. It's a tiny file, whack it into your mod folder (cookedpc?) and you're good to go.

sebmojo wrote:

There's a great mod for The Witcher 2, adds in a junk filter and options to filter by weight.

...so it places a fig leaf over Geralt's nekked bits in the sex scenes?....

Filthy enablers... Just bought Witcher 2 based on the non-fanboy recommendation.

PyromanFO wrote:

I've actually started enjoying my gaming (and TV, books and movies) more since I've stopped caring about the quality of whatever I'm playing. If it looks fun, I start playing. If it gets boring, I stop.

I'm pretty much the same way. If I'm enjoying it, I'll keep on playing. If not, I'll stop.

That's pretty much why my pile is the size of the world, and why I'm still playing WoW...

Anybody planning on buying The Witcher 2, I highly recommend buying it on GoG over Steam.
This isn't bias, I bought it on Steam and regret it. On GoG you get no DRM, more bonus content, easier to manage bonus content, GWJ support, and better patches (assuming they still don't fix the steam patch size issue).
And make sure you use the GWJ link
http://www.gog.com/en/frontpage/?pp=...

No, Fedora, I really like my weekly 9gb downloads on Steam. Why would I ever give them up?

Scubasteve wrote:

You guys went to that rabbit thing last week and didn't go to E3?

I regret nothing.

wordsmythe wrote:
Scubasteve wrote:

You guys went to that rabbit thing last week and didn't go to E3?

I regret nothing.

To be fair, Rabbitcon sounds like 475% more fun than E3.

Regarding The Witcher 2 and Fedora's comment, I thought a lot of that was fixed in the 9GB patch for Steam to make it on par with GOG. Either way, I suggest people just buy the game anywhere, but it's really friggin' good.

demonicmurry wrote:

Regarding The Witcher 2 and Fedora's comment, I thought a lot of that was fixed in the 9GB patch for Steam to make it on par with GOG. Either way, I suggest people just buy the game anywhere, but it's really friggin' good.

I mean the bonus content, not game content. The actual in game content is exactly the same for both version.
The GoG version gets you more bonus videos (if you're into that sort of thing) and you can pick and choose what things you want to download instead of having to download it all together in that weird steam tools thing.

The 9 gig patch was actually a 20 meg or so patch but due to Steam's file system you had to redownload a file that contained like 80% of the entire game's files. The second update had the same issue.

CPTNaters wrote:

Cory, In the beginning of the episode were you talking about Happy the Hobo from the show Happy's Place that aired on Fox in the afternoons?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy%27s_Place

Oh my God. That there's a wikipedia page for that is frightening. Yes, that's it.

I'd say you guys got your E3 predictions pretty much perfect.

I'm pretty sure the emailer Kevin had a thread in the forum a few months ago talking about his love of board gaming combined with the bitter pill of his OCD. Glad to hear he's getting help.

I think Elysium's suggestion of a copy of a game for home and a copy for out may be the best. Then the 'out' games can be packed in a plastic chest or something with minimal cleaning. I don't know much about card sleeves, would using clear tape work to seal the cards in? I don't see that cleaning the inside of a sleeve would be feasible.

But not being someone who suffers from a psychological disorder (that I know of, don't think being glib and snarky counts) I would be a little concerned about reinforcing behaviour that one is getting help with.

I would volunteer to do a Witcher 2 spoiler section. Could be fun. I just have a headset mic though, not sure what quality would be like. And I have an odd accent.

*edit*

Oh, Corey. You want Kinect in your smaller room?

...new gaming gear from Nyko. Zoom for Kinect is a set of clip-on specs that lets you get 40 percent closer to the sensor bar with no loss of function -- so the studio apartment set can get in on the gesture gaming craze.

That 3DS battery pack thing is surprisingly neat (could be prettier though)

With regards to Shawn and Cory losing $60 to Hunted: The Demon's Forge. I don't think there is a game that I've spent money on in recent history without watching the Giant Bomb Quick Look first. Typically I can get a feel for the game and whether I want to drop any money on it.

Almost everybody has a bluetooth headset and a smartphone that can record audio these days. One strategy for recording a large batch of people playing a game is having each one record their audio with their phone. Everybody wearing a headset isn't too obtrusive.

It would be a beast to edit them all together, but doable.

I'm not saying you should do this. I am just an engineer, offering solutions to challenges.

foose wrote:

Almost everybody has a bluetooth headset and a smartphone that can record audio these days. One strategy for recording a large batch of people playing a game is having each one record their audio with their phone. Everybody wearing a headset isn't too obtrusive.

It would be a beast to edit them all together, but doable.

I'm not saying you should do this. I am just an engineer, offering solutions to challenges.

Given the sync challenged of putting a 4 man podcast together thats only an hour long, and recorded on professional equipment, I can't IMAGINE trying to sync 5-6 tracks form different phones together and get anything remotely usable.

Kehama wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
Scubasteve wrote:

You guys went to that rabbit thing last week and didn't go to E3?

I regret nothing.

To be fair, Rabbitcon sounds like 475% more fun than E3.

I heard attendees even take the time to shower before they turn up.

@rabbit Try, if you haven't yet, Beat Sketcher on the PS3-Move, the demo is awesome, I still play just with the demo some days with my kid, it's painting with music in the backgorund and taking pictures.

Ooh gaming nausea... something I actually know about!

The only concrete advice I can offer is limit the length of your sessions. On one hand, playing a game in 15 minute segments sucks if it's even possible. On the other hand, if the game is great it beats not playing it or playing it for long periods of time and then feeling awful.

There are a couple other things that have worked for me on occasion. One is to use my peripheral vision: stare into space rather than focusing on the monitor, or focusing on a specific point of the monitor the entire time. I know that isn't practical for most games but it worked for me in Burnout.

It probably is not practical in Dirt 3, but moving in long, straight lines has worked as well.

I have the same aversion to consuming something to cope that the CC cast had so my main strategy is to avoid games which will probably cause me to feel uncomfortable. My plan doesn't always work as I bought Orange Box in a moment of hubris after finishing Bioshock. There are way too many quality games out there to play that it's hard to justify feeling awful to play the nausea-inducing ones.