Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 348

State of Decay, Remember Me, Scrolls, Kentucky Route Zero 2, Warhammer Quest, Marvel Heroes, The Swapper, Our Thoughts on E3 So Far, Your Emails and More!

We are hot and heavy into E3! This week the crew records fresh off the Sony press conference to give their thoughts on the day.

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.

Chairman_Mao's Timestamps
00.01.14 Scrolls
00.08.21 State of Decay
00.20.03 Warhammer Quest
00.25.42 Kentucky Road Zero: Act 2
00.30.55 Remember Me
00.37.02 The Swapper
00.37.36 Marvel Heroes
00.40.13 This week's topic: E3!
01.32.38 Your emails!

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Coactive (Game Edit) - BigBot Audio Drop - SGX - http://sgxmusic.com/ - 39:46

Amity - BigBot Audio Drop - SGX - http://sgxmusic.com/ - 1:32:11

Comments

So you finally caved and decided to not be a week behind / make predictions beforehand that have the answers known by the time it is posted? I was almost looking forward to it, too.

Finally ! Wednesday, my new favorite day (for about a year now), because I get to listen to you guys

Was that list of expected online commentary for killer instinct real? Do you guys have a link?

What?! No bold predictions? No wild theories? I am disappoint!
Just kidding, your reactions made the podcast all the more worthwhile.

But first a word about Remember Me. I'm super glad that Shawn had a good experience with it. I haven't gotten it yet, but I had huge hopes for this game, and the negative reviews that have been cropping up left and right were a bit of a downer. Glad to know it's still worthwhile!
I won't be buying it as of yet (pile, rig upgrade, impending move, blah blah blah), but it's definitely on my wishlist. Super glad you enjoyed the setting and feel of the game, even though the mechanics weren't ground breaking.

I'm so glad you guys didn't dismiss the “Just let it happen, it'll be over soon” comment that was made at the XBox conference. I was absolutely shocked by it, and since then, chagrined by the avalanche of comments in the vein of “oh he didn't mean anything by it” or “you're being too sensitive.”

Moving on. There are definitely a few games that sparked my interest, Mirror's Edge (the reboot? the sequel?), Dragon Age 3, The Witcher 3 (yes! yes, it does look great!!).
"Driveatar" was... um, yeah... :/

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag... *sigh* I'm still in "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice..." mode.

TESO looks really, really great. I hope ZeniMax can pull it off, because wow, that game looks so promising. I'm still holding out until I know what business model they'll be using, but still...

The price difference seemed like the finishing touch for Sony, the whole E3 Conference so far has been pretty incredible to watch as it unfolded, even as a PC only gamer.

Love the podcast, thanks a bunch for it!

Edit: This is for SoFar. Link to RawStory, FWIW.

Playing on my 360 recently I held my thumbs parallel to each other, low down on the controller just to see if it felt comfortable.

Eleima wrote:

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag... *sigh* I'm still in "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice..." mode.

You are probably right to be cautious but it's a different team and a different writer. Lead writer Darby McDevitt (who wrote earlier games) did an interview with Loomer979 recently and it gave me a lot of hope. Don't tell anyone but I'm secretly stoked for AC4.

Why are people talking about the Drivatar like it's something new? It was in the first Forza on the Xbox onnnee- err original Xbox. I hated the drivatar, because unless you trained it perfectly it felt like it would drive to the worst of the ability that you recorded with it.

I liked the grimmer look for Dead rising and the jacket. Not sure if I'm going to squeeze many missile strikes out of my old Nokia 'pay as you go' phone.

Pretty sure the old magic the gathering derived collect cards as you play game was Etherlords: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etherlords

Was that list of expected online commentary for killer instinct real? Do you guys have a link?

It was, but I don't have a link for it off hand.

What does $20 get you in Scrolls? Just a starter? Anything else?

Mousetrap wrote:

Pretty sure the old magic the gathering derived collect cards as you play game was Etherlords: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etherlords

I'm pretty sure they're thinking of the Micropose game from the 90's. Funnily enough they had an expansion/add-on for it called "Duels of the Planeswalkers" which added online play.

Speaking of F2P card games, has anyone on the podcast checked out Ubisoft's Might & Magic: Duels of Champions for PC/iOS?

Shawn's high praise for State of Decay has me quite interested in checking it out. Hopefully it won't be too long before it's released on PC, e.g. before I've completely forgotten about it.

I fear that the only way to truly overcome the misogyny from men is to bring them up being told it's not okay and being educated on what isn't and why it's not okay. Start from the ground up... Older guys who are already like that? They're not going to listen as well.

Different topic!

I'd love to play State of Decay but I don't have a 360. I was following it from when it was first announced and, I have to say you did a fairly good job of describing it. :p

What was the Jack White? You can't leave us hanging?!

minnebrew wrote:

What was the Jack White? You can't leave us hanging?!

I haven't listened to this episode yet. The funny thing about bringing up Jack White during the Sony press conference is that he made this statement for record store day this year. I find it rather amusing that they decided to name drop him.

"Well here's what they'll someday learn if they have a soul; there's no romance in a mouse click. There's no beauty in sitting for hours playing video games (anyone proud of that stop reading now and post your opinion in the nearest forum.) The screen of an iPhone is convenient, but it's no comparison to a 70mm showing of a film in a gorgeous theater. The Internet is two-dimensional… helpful and entertaining, but no replacement for face-to-face interaction with a human being."

State of Decay sounds incredible, trying really hard to hold off for the PC version

Microsoft's penchant for copying hit again with that LittleBigPlanet ripoff. I think I heard the phrase "Play, Build, Share" but I may have blacked out. I also really hated the executive's (not sure who he was) tone of voice when he was speaking to their support of indies. He said "Of courrrrrrse...... we are going to continue to support...." in a very 'quit whining about this to us' tone of voice. Man, they could not have come off any worse.

Regarding the comments about Geralt's corset: my wife thought the same thing, something like "Why are his clothes so tight?"

I can't tell if the reader mail segment was recorded before or after the MS/Sony segment given the remark about "Just point at MS" comment being borderline prescient. Also, was the MS/Sony presentation recap recorded with everyone in the same room? The audio quality was a lot different than the standard segment.

Anyways, excellent show!

An answer to why Wii-U isn't getting credit for used games. For there to BE Wii-U used games, people have to BUY Wii-U games. Hahaha. I'm hilarious I know.

I'm kind of burned out on zombies (and don't own an XBox anyway), but State of Decay sounds like the closest thing yet to a video game version of the BBC series Survivors. Which gets my attention.

* There was a 2008 reboot, too, but it wasn't nearly as good as my nostalgic memories of "what is this crazy thing PBS is showing at weird hours?".

Man, just when I though MS has finished eating a pile of crow, an executive says 'we have a console for people that want to remain offline... It's the Xbox 360'.

It's like Sony turned the entire MS team into Pod People. This is lunacy.

All I could think at the end of Monday's events was how much I wanted to hear you gentlemen chime in with your impressions. Thanks so much for recording your Day 1 thoughts that night.

Great show, as always.

State of Decay sounds good, gameplay via simulation is very rare.

I think Sony pulling all the indie developers onstage was more important and telling than all the big IP release trailers put together. I truly believe that for a large number of reasons, the number of big AAA games are going to be reduced due to the overwhelming costs and risks involved.

I see Indie games making mid-tier $20-30 games that sell well enough to justify an expanded budget sequel. The publishers cannot keep eating the cost games that require 7 million games sold just to break even, but only manages to sell 3.4 million.

You can sort of see this trend playing out with Square-Enix now with multiple big budget games now failing to meet unrealistic sales expectations. They have trimmed the big budget games back to two proven franchises and are instead focusing on smaller and even mobile games. I would guess that we will see more back catalog releases on iPhone, Android, and anything else they can sell them to us once again on in order to get their bottom line back to the black.

If (when) I get a console this nex generation it'll be a PS4, and mostly because of that indie bit. I don't understand people getting all worked up over AAA games that play 99% identically while all the most interesting gaming is in the indie scene. Sony has clearly shown they're the indie choice, so that's where I'll go.

Call of Duty:Ghost had their own E3 show Sunday night.

ranalin wrote:

Call of Duty:Ghost had their own E3 show Sunday night.

Did they have real dogs on stage?

drew327 wrote:

Regarding the comments about Geralt's corset: my wife thought the same thing, something like "Why are his clothes so tight?"

Polish hipsters are becoming a real problem.

wordsmythe wrote:
drew327 wrote:

Regarding the comments about Geralt's corset: my wife thought the same thing, something like "Why are his clothes so tight?"

Polish hipsters are becoming a real problem.

They were wearing them in Vizima before it was cool.

I'd never heard of State of Decay before but after listening the demo is downloading now.

First, good show.

Second, a more general statement about recent events:

What has happened? For the last year every major games journalist has questioned the value of Xbox Live Gold. They questioned whether online multiplayer is worth $5 a month. Now Sony has pulled online multiplayer behind their pay-wall and Shawn Andrich says, “They’ve earned the right to ask for five bucks a month if you want to play a game online.” I’m sorry but that is not how it works. Sony does not get a free pass on this one. Online multiplayer has been free on PC for years. Sony appropriately did not charge for this feature. Microsoft did, and everyone has said this is wrong for the last ten years. Yet, now that Sony is bending over backwards to please the internet gaming community, we see an insult and say, “They’ve earned the right.” Yes, they have earned the right to insult us! Isn’t that a jolly way to think about the most consumer friendly console manufacturer? I think it is pretty clear that the Sony love coming out of E3 2013 is an internet-inspired, kneejerk backlash against the success of Microsoft’s 360 and their recent PR failures. This does not mean we have to give up our previous opinions that have become no less correct. Our standards, and especially those of the games journalists, should not falter. Sony should not be placing online multiplayer behind a pay-wall, just as Microsoft should not have, and PC games don’t. Sony did not earn the right to insult gamers with multiplayer pay-walls just as Microsoft did not earn the right to insult us with strict DRM.

Also, the rape comment during the MS conference was so gosh darn awkward.

State of Decay may be the first game to get me to use my 360 in almost 2 years.

I would rather play on PC.. but sounds like it's a ways out. For $20, I'll buy it twice to support the devs.