Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 285

TERA, Angry Birds: Space, Watching Starcraft, The Hard-Core Casual Movement, Street Fighter X Tekken, Journey Spoiler Section, Your Emails and more!

This week Julian, Elysium, Cory and Allen talk about how hard-core casual games are getting. There's also a Journey spoiler section after the credits with Julian, Lara and Karla!

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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RIFT

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Comments

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The spoiler section to Journey has convinced me to play the game now rather than wait until it's on sale.

And here is this week's rundown, courtesy of the frozen assets of Chinese politician/gangster Bo "tiger bench" Xilai:

00.01.55 Watching competitive StarCraft (MLG/pro gaming discussion)
00.06.55 Demiurge finishes ME3 with tears in eyes
00.08.14 Street Fighter vs. Tekken
00.11.22 Pyroman catches up on all the ME games
00.15.05 Angry Birds Space!
00.18.15 Hunger Games
00.19.55 Most awkward but probably appropriate segue ever to Tera
00.22.26 Rift
00.24.10 This week's Topic: Casual Gaming Market
00.38.10 Your emails
00.59.54 Journey spoilers

What's wrong with Journey's camera, exactly?

The only video game sound tracks that I have ever bought are Final Fantasy VII and Nier. Both are phenomenal.

I'd buy Bastion's soundtrack if I could find it.

Craymen Edge wrote:

What's wrong with Journey's camera, exactly?

It's *fine* but can get confusing, because it takes both the tilt and the thumb controls as inputs, so if you re the kind of gamer who moves your hands around a lot, you can screw yourself. I didn't really have an issue with it, but the non-gamers in the household had issues.

rabbit wrote:

It's *fine* but can get confusing, because it takes both the tilt and the thumb controls as inputs, so if you re the kind of gamer who moves your hands around a lot, you can screw yourself. I didn't really have an issue with it, but the non-gamers in the household had issues.

Ah, I see. I must admit I kind of forgot the six-axis camera movement very early into the game.

AndrewA wrote:

I'd buy Bastion's soundtrack if I could find it.

Wait.... what?

Here, let me help you part with $10:

http://supergiantgames.bandcamp.com/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/10... (If you have the Steam version)

Journey...is it available on the 360??

shoptroll wrote:
AndrewA wrote:

I'd buy Bastion's soundtrack if I could find it.

Wait.... what?

Here, let me help you part with $10:

http://supergiantgames.bandcamp.com/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/10... (If you have the Steam version)

Whoa... thanks. I swear I'd looked on Steam before, and then Googled. Or, I'm a moron. That could be it too.

IMAGE(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5hNTqW5TgJQ/TZIDokjPiCI/AAAAAAAADpM/Zh3MgGBkDxE/s1600/bait.jpg)

A correction to something that Julian stated: he said that Draw Something was OMGPOP's only game. Because this story has been in the news so much recently, I know that statement is false. While Draw Something may be OMGPOP's only game that people bothered to play, they do have 30+ games that they made before it. Draw Something is just one of those cases where it was the right thing in the right place at the right time, so it (apparently) spread like wildfire.

Funny, I started a NewGame+ of Bastion right away because of the narrative. The game resonated with me even more when I went through it a second time (admittedly I didn't finish it again ... yet) and understood more of what was happening and the impact of what the characters were saying and how they felt.

I believe I did that in large part because of the way the game's plot unfolded; I think Bastion warrants a second look in large part because of the emotional resonance it can have with you and because of how the story was told.

But that's me. I don't plan on replaying Journey unless it's to show it to someone. I felt like I got all I needed from that first experience. Both of my views are contrary to Julian's. Strange.

OzymandiasAV wrote:

IMAGE(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5hNTqW5TgJQ/TZIDokjPiCI/AAAAAAAADpM/Zh3MgGBkDxE/s1600/bait.jpg)

This wouldn't have anything to do with this tweet, would it?

@OzymandiasAV wrote:

@mkrpata: Just finished Journey. I thought it was a poignant statement about how life is too short to be playing Journey.

I was just trying to save Cory some emails, especially since the designer behind the Hunger Games iOS app (Adam Saltsman) is actually the same guy that designed Canaba[color=red]l[/color]t.

EDIT: Also, I haven't played Journey yet - I just thought Mitch's tweet was funny.

OzymandiasAV wrote:

I was just trying to save Cory some emails, especially since the designer behind the Hunger Games iOS app (Adam Saltsman) is actually the same guy that designed Canaba[color=red]l[/color]t.

EDIT: Also, I haven't played Journey yet - I just thought Mitch's tweet was funny.

He's not the only indie iOS developer on it, right? I thought I read somewhere that it was some iOS dream team or something.

Whatever. I still don't get it. And it was racist of them to change the color of the tracker jackets. Or something. Current events.

Yeah, the production includes a number of notable indie types (Super Crate Box's animator, the composer behind Super Meat Boy), but Saltsman has been positioned as the lead designer in most of the articles I've read.

Baranowski also did the music for Canabalt if memory serves.

I had a problem playing a renegade femshep after playing a paragon male shep Rabbit (I usually play mister nice guy.) It was a lot easier to commit to renegade once I had a solid reason for my character to be going that route that wasn't just 'be evil.'

My femshep had decided the galaxy was at stake and there was a limited time in which to saved it. She was going to ignore rules in order to move as quickly as possible and even take it upon herself to do despicable things if she deemed it necessary. I didn't go full renegade. I still judged things on a case by case basis but I felt I could take a lot more of the renegade options without and attack of the guilts.

Any episode with Lara in it is an automatic failure.
At least it is at the end so there is a part of the show that is salvageable.

Snadzies_McSnadz wrote:

Any episode with Lara in it is an automatic failure.
At least it is at the end so there is a part of the show that is salvageable.

It's fine to not enjoy listening to some of the podcasters (we all have our favorites and our least favorites), but don't be an asshole about it.

Rabbit, you should give StarCraft a shot. You might be surprised at how enjoyable it is to watch.

Atras wrote:

I don't listen to the spoiler sections, so I don't know what she said on this episode.

Nothing different than what Rabbit or Karla said. They all spoke glowingly about Journey in a way that made it clear that the game had an effect on them that most game designers probably dream of.

Granted, she didn't *once* let loose a "Female Doggoes", so I suppose *that* could be the reason why Mr. McSnadz is so unhappy. It may also be due to her saying that the soundtrack was better than any Final Fantasy soundtrack.

I absolutely loved the Journey spoiler section. It's pretty amazing that a sub 2 hour gaming experience can fill a 40 minute spoiler section with ease, yet there is still so much that was left unsaid. All 3 of you made some metaphorical references that I hadn't really considered. I'm going to play through it again before making a declaration, but Journey may very well be my favorite downloadable title of this generation so far.

mudbunny wrote:

Journey...is it available on the 360??

Sadly, no

This was the last game in their contract with Sony though, so thatgamecompany currently has the ability to make any future titles without platform restrictions.

Edit: Lara was great in the spoiler section. Ignore tha h8ters.

One of my favorites, listened to this all the time:

Yo dawg

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/0n3mX.jpg)

Gravey wrote:

Yo dawg

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/0n3mX.jpg)

!!!

Demiurge wrote:

!!!

I also had Heihachi holding a Roku box, but decided that was too much.

Snadzies_McSnadz wrote:

.

This is the second time you've appeared to be an asshole and offer nothing constructive. Won't be a third time.

IMAGE(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8TmDn1NERZk/TlMFLGrd2QI/AAAAAAAAFGM/f9mHz89XE-4/s1600/wil_wheaton_dont_be_a_dick.png)

I've played the Mass Effect games multiple times over each time. There's some content I haven't seen yet personally, but it's not much, and I've already YouTubed most of those.

The problem with Renegade Shepard's story quite simply is that it's badly made. Paragon Shepard's personality makes sense, even if he's sometimes a little insufferably optimistic. Pure Paragon doesn't sound like a basket case. Pure Renegade does. There's no rhyme or reason for some of the renegade choices, and the values in each Renagade choice isn't consistent with other Renegade choices. It's more consistent to choose mostly Renegade and part Paragon.

Renegade itself isn't what I would call evil or a villain or even much of an anti-hero. Shep is still almost totally a boy scout as Renegade, only he completely loses his mind now and then.

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