Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 360

Splinter Cell: Black List, Cory Doesn't Play Rome 2, Europa Universalis IV, Divekick, The Stratification of The 2DS, Your Emails and More!

This week the filthy usurper Julian Murdoch hosts the show will Shawn Andrich languishes in the fourth chair.

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
00.02.33 Europa Universalis IV
00.11.21 Splinter Cell Black List
00.12.00 Divekick
00.16.59 Total War: Rome II
00.17:33 Brothers
00.18.50 FF XIV
00.21.27 Chivalry
00.25.27 Marvel Legendary
00.26.39 Blackbar
00.28.21 Steam Card Collecting
00.32.52 This week's topic: the stratification of the 2DS!
00.50.45 Your emails!

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Lonely Organ - Broke for Free - http://brokeforfree.com/ - 32:23

Blown Out - Broke for Free - http://brokeforfree.com/ - 50:16

Comments

If there's not an "et tu Julian?" joke in this show I'm going to be disappointed.

LOLOL!

Oh hey we're still talking about Divekick. Great.

You know what was great? All the EU4 talk! THAT WAS GREAT!

More please.

My Sean Sands man-crush continues to grow.

Good episode, really liked the discussion about the 2DS and stratification. Great blooper reel at the end

Also, I disagree with Julian's assertion about Legendary, but that's mostly based on a single demo session at a con which probably isn't the best way to learn the game. I had a really hard time keeping track of which cards where in my deck simply because the game uses the same stock art for each hero's cards except with a different border color depending on the card. That design choice makes it really hard to quickly tell at a glance what you have and really a disappointment considering how much art Marvel must have for each hero.

speaking of the steam cards and stuff,
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode...

Speaking of trading cards and booster packs dropping at random times (cross posting from the steam trading card thread):

So I decided to craft my lvl 5 Half-Life 2 badge. I got my common rewards that I had already got before and sold, and put them on the market. 15 mins later, I have an item. It is a..... Half-Life 2 booster pack. Really? And what possible use is it to me now other than to sell off?

mrtomaytohead wrote:

And what possible use is it to me now other than to sell off?

Trying to win the foil lottery?

shoptroll wrote:

Good episode, really liked the discussion about the 2DS and stratification. Great blooper reel at the end

Also, I disagree with Julian's assertion about Legendary, but that's mostly based on a single demo session at a con which probably isn't the best way to learn the game. I had a really hard time keeping track of which cards where in my deck simply because the game uses the same stock art for each hero's cards except with a different border color depending on the card. That design choice makes it really hard to quickly tell at a glance what you have and really a disappointment considering how much art Marvel must have for each hero.

I agree to disagree with Julian. Legendary is overly complicated between what heroes, arch-villains, henchmen, villains, and scenarios to use. It takes 10 minutes to set up and 10 minutes to tear down. Every hero has symbols that allow you to chain effects together, but, and I think this is the worst component, the order in which you play the cards is critically important.

I think the DC Comics Deckbuilding game, while having a much worse title, is much simpler and more fun to actually get on the table.

To the emailer who was looking for a large screen with acceptable image delay, check out a projector rather than a TV. I've been using an Epson for several years on a 100"-wide screen (I don't know the diagonal but it should be about 130") and it has basically no lag. Some projectors have awful lag of 80-100ms but if you look at the right ones, they'll average under 20ms.

* a projector may not work as well if the room has a lot of sunlight or other background light you can't diminish.

Nevin73 wrote:

the order in which you play the cards is critically important.

Stoneblade (formerly Gary Games) latched onto this really early on with the Lifebound heroes and introduced the Unite keyword which loosened the need to play certain Lifebound cards before others. Now with Unite, the ability just triggers once per turn when you play another Lifebound hero or if you previously played one that turn.

I don't get the 'skinner box' email. They're all skinner boxes. Conversely(?), I seek out games with reward systems that I like. Check out Dragon's Crown everybody!
It's got leveling up and new art, literally. The side quests give you awesome pictures to look at.
edit: and random loot.
edit2: and the story is pretty good, though relatively short-it still lasts long enough for a movie.

Keithustus wrote:

To the emailer who was looking for a large screen with acceptable image delay, check out a projector rather than a TV. I've been using an Epson for several years on a 100"-wide screen (I don't know the diagonal but it should be about 130") and it has basically no lag. Some projectors have awful lag of 80-100ms but if you look at the right ones, they'll average under 20ms.

* a projector may not work as well if the room has a lot of sunlight or other background light you can't diminish.

Ya a projector won't work for me, I have a 60 inch LCD now. It's the wife that said we should get a "bigger one" if I'm going to pay 2-3k on a TV. Just thought the input lag was something to talk about and maybe something one of the big TV company's could market and not for just us "yacht" owning guys. lol

Roland, not all games are as directly designed to appeal to our lizard brains as others. This isn't the best explanation of which and why, but it's got a lot of the same material as the one that eludes me now:

http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_chatfield_7_ways_games_reward_the_brain.html

Braehole wrote:

I have a 60 inch LCD now. It's the wife that said we should get a "bigger one"

Never let her go.

shoptroll wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

the order in which you play the cards is critically important.

Stoneblade (formerly Gary Games) latched onto this really early on with the Lifebound heroes and introduced the Unite keyword which loosened the need to play certain Lifebound cards before others. Now with Unite, the ability just triggers once per turn when you play another Lifebound hero or if you previously played one that turn.

It's early and I'm pre-coffee yet, but isn't that Ascension? Or is there a similiar effect in Marvel Legendary?

Nevin73 wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

the order in which you play the cards is critically important.

Stoneblade (formerly Gary Games) latched onto this really early on with the Lifebound heroes and introduced the Unite keyword which loosened the need to play certain Lifebound cards before others. Now with Unite, the ability just triggers once per turn when you play another Lifebound hero or if you previously played one that turn.

It's early and I'm pre-coffee yet, but isn't that Ascension? Or is there a similiar effect in Marvel Legendary?

Yup. I was typing that up while making dinner last night and forgot the context. My bad. I was just trying to point out (what I remember from Legendary) that chaining cards is annoying if you have to play them in a specific order.

EDIT: The other thing is that because of Legendary's use of chaining, it makes it all the more important to go heavy on a single color or two. I think Ascension handles this a lot better because the 4 colors tend to play nicely together and only Lifebound and Mechana really depend on other cards of the same color.

And I still maintain that if I want to play a superhero game I'm much better served by Sentinels of the Multiverse. Fortunately, Julian likes that one so I can't criticize his taste in games too much

I have mixed feelings about Sentinels. I like it (and bought all the expansions) but I feel like Legendary has some more interesting stuff going on, and I feel like im actually competing, not JUST cooperating.

rabbit wrote:

I have mixed feelings about Sentinels. I like it (and bought all the expansions) but I feel like Legendary has some more interesting stuff going on, and I feel like im actually competing, not JUST cooperating.

That's fair. Like I said, my impression is based on a single demo session at PAX East last year. I just didn't feel like it made me feel like I was playing as a superhero or team of superheroes. Of course, that might be because I came at the game from a Dominion/Ascension perspective and only saw the abstractness of it.

And now you've got me wracking my brain for games in our library that are co-op/competitive and I'm drawing a major blank.

Oh man. My wife would kill me if I let my kid watch TV for 3 hours while I played a video game.

Just throwing this out there, but wasn't the helmeted bad guys thing due to limited resources, and that way the art/design departments could stamp out enemies for you to mow down without having to capture or sculpt individual faces? I remember GoldenEye on N64 had this problem where they had very detailed faces for the time but you kept running into the same five henchmen over and over.

Xerxes wrote:

Just throwing this out there, but wasn't the helmeted bad guys thing due to limited resources, and that way the art/design departments could stamp out enemies for you to mow down without having to capture or sculpt individual faces? I remember GoldenEye on N64 had this problem where they had very detailed faces for the time but you kept running into the same five henchmen over and over.

Hard to tell if motivations were one, the other, or both. From the player's point of view, though, the masks do remove a bit of the human element—that ability to recognize someone else as a living, thinking, caring person, possibly with a family, etc..