Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 253

Deus Ex Modded, Driver: San Francisco, 40K Kill Team, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, MMOFPS Games, Blurring of Genre Lines, Payments Systems and more!more!

This week Shawn, Cory and Julian are joined by Michael Zenke to talk about MMOFPS games, blurring lines and the state of pay.

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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Deus Ex New Vision Mod
Driver: SF
Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Beautiful Women - Secret Mountain - http://www.sans-concept.com - 26:07

Peripatetic - Chroma - http://sgxmusic.com/ - 59:27

Comments

There's also
http://3000ad.com/lod/
for an MMOFPS.

sullyville wrote:

Yeah, I was very charmed by the dad who had 40 hours to play as well. It's an interesting existential conundrum. It's a little like Desert Island Discs, only with games. It is a terrifying situation: limited time, 5 years of backlog.

For my money, play:
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Mass Effect 1

Good list, but I'd take BF: Bad Company 2 or CoD. Actually, my preference is the first Bad Company game, but the overwhelming consensus would be that BC 2 is the better game.

RolandofGilead wrote:

There's also
http://3000ad.com/lod/
for an MMOFPS.

Is this your coming out party, Derek. Are you really Roland?

garion333 wrote:
RolandofGilead wrote:

There's also
http://3000ad.com/lod/
for an MMOFPS.

Is this your coming out party, Derek. Are you really Roland?

Actually we do both like creating space sim combat games,
it's just that he has a company to make them with and
I spend all my time designing rather than actually making them.

Also, if I was Derek, I would have promoted my game first, and Dust 514 not at all.

Late to listening, but the awesome part that I have to share is that as you guys were lamenting people not picking up Shadows of the Damned, guess what arrived on my desk?

So looking forward to playing with my Certis endorsed big boner.

As a sports gamer, these micro transactions have mostly hurt hurt the gaming experience.

NHL 09 had a great Be A Pro mode in which you leveled up a player, not just to play offline, but to then take online to play in 6 on 6 multiplayer. Online Team Play was a great feature which rewarded you for good play.

EA then decided it was a great way to make money. What they wanted was to provide the "service" of letting you buy the upgrades instead of earning them through play. This threw the balance out of whack in online play in NHL 10, as the mode was flooded with oversized speedy players that couldn't play for crap.

NHL 11 further ruined the mode. EA, realizing how much money was to be made, now made the tasks you had to complete to level up your player insanely long. This forced more players to buy their upgrades so they could play online. But for gamers like me, that had no real interest in OTP, it just destroyed the offline mode. It turned a fun mode into a boring grind.

EA did basically the same thing in Tiger Woods golf, but doubled down by offering courses as DLC. If you wanted to play all of the courses you got on the Wii version (which doesn't have a reliable DLC model), you be spending $60 or so in courses. Your $60 game was now $120. And courses you downloaded for TW 10 did not follow you to TW 11.

I have to believe the same conditions that led to this in sports games will hav the same effect on MMO's and other games. Developers will be pushed to stretch out the tasks required to upgrade more and more in order to spur sales, not improve gameplay.

Another quick game to play is Magicka. Really a fun little experience that can be played in a few hours. Also Monkey Island 1 and 2 special editions.

Another short one would be Defense Grid.

sullyville wrote:

Yeah, I was very charmed by the dad who had 40 hours to play as well. It's an interesting existential conundrum. It's a little like Desert Island Discs, only with games. It is a terrifying situation: limited time, 5 years of backlog.

For my money, play:
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Mass Effect 1

Borrow or rent a PS3:
Uncharted 2
Red Dead Redemption
(play all the way to the end)

And that should hold you for another 5 years. By then I'll have another list for you. After all, Arkham City and Uncharted 3 are coming out this holiday!

He only has 40 hours which isn't enough for just Mass Effect alone (when you have never played it before) unless he only does the main quest-line. And actually I would say skip Mass Effect 1 and go right to 2. I love everything ME and just finished like my 6th or 7th ME1 play-through, but it has some rough edges and takes like 30 hours when you know what you are doing. ME2 is a much stronger game in almost every way (I hate having to collect ammo, it feels like a step backwards).

My suggestion is if he is just going to play one game then go for ME2. If he wants to get more gaming in then I would say Bioshock, Portal, Shadow Complex (if he has access to an Xbox 360), and for something completely different and very under-rated: Prince of Persia (2008). It is fun, you can play through in around 10 hours, the story is interesting, the characters have a great repartee, and it is one of the most visually appealing games of this generation IMHO (plus the trailers introduced me to Sia and Sigur Ros).