Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 372

Forza 5, Dead Rising 3, Super Mario 3D World, Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Zoo Tycoon, Powerstar Golf, Knack, Madden 25, Xbox One Impressions, A Graham Rowat Reading, Your Emails and More!

This week Shawn Andrich and Sean Sands are joined by Dean Tate and Jeff Cannata to talk all things Xbox One! We also have a new reading by Graham Rowat and a report from the console wars.

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
00.03.56 Forza 5
00.07.57 Assassin's Creed IV
00.11.30 Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
00.19.41 Battlefield 4
00.21.59 Need for Speed: Rivals
00.26.17 Dead Rising 3
00.27.19 Civ 5
00.33.06 Super Mario 3D Land
00.33.48 Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
00.38.43 This week's topic: the definitive list of all time ever of the best games of the previous console generation!
01.06.53 Your emails!

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Reveille Variation/Drum Call/Slow Scotch/Quick Scotch/Yankee Doodle/Montezumas Revenge from Warlik - The United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps - http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Th... - 59:16

Waking Up - Dexter Britain - http://freemusicarchive.org/music/De... - 1:45:56

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Comments

Woo hoo! My post was referenced in the Podcast!

/FeelingImportant
//NotReallyImportant

That said, I LOVED the reading. I literally laughed out loud multiple times on both the train and shuttle bus to work. The writing was spot on and Graham's delivery was pitch-perfect. 10/10 would listen again.

Great podcast all around, thanks to the gang for getting so involved in the details. Sadly, I agree with the consensus regarding the controller. Although I have not had much opportunity to use it (the kids monopolized the system over the weekend) I did spend about an hour running into walls in Forza last night and the controller felt, well, off. I hope that they do release an updated version at some point, although I already shelled out the $$$ for a second controller. Oh well, such is the life of the early adopter.

I was an angry, angry human being at some point, apparently.

Elysium wrote:

I was an angry, angry human being at some point, apparently.

Your Drunkatar wrote it.

You're truly committed to making that word stick.

I'm winning the PR war in the battle for people being more likely to notice your Drivatar's malicious slamming into people compared to my unskilled slamming into people.

Great to hear Jeff Cannata on the show again. He seems to be popping up on all my favourite podcasts recently and he's always a pleasure to listen to.

I have a strong negative reaction to micro-transactions in games just because they feel manipulative. I suspect that Microsoft is hoping to use them as a way to fund giving away games for free in the future. In a sense, at the moment, we have asynchronous 'free to play' system. I get fantastic games that don't have micro-transactions like Iron Brigade and Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes for free while Microsoft puts them in games I don't really care about.

The problem will be, as Jeff said, when transactions are added into a game I want to play like Dragon Age 3. If they can be done tastefully, in a way that doesn't make me feel like I'm being sold to mid game, then I'd have less of a problem.

I wonder if this kind of thing will become a part of games as much as adverts are ever present in magazines and on TV and will be seen, similarly, as necessary in order to fund the enterprise of game development. There may come a time when micro-transactions don't stand out to us and we just tune them out and enjoy the entertainment provided. Equally it may be the case that our generation of gamers aways find it a little irritating (apart from those who don't :P) and the next generation will see it as a perfectly reasonable status quo.

Well, to be fair it must be hard to slam into people after they've all passed you.

Higgledy wrote:

I have a strong negative reaction to micro-transactions in games just because they feel manipulative. I suspect that Microsoft is hoping to use them as a way to fund giving away games for free in the future. In a sense, at the moment, we have asynchronous 'free to play' system. I get fantastic games that don't have micro-transactions like Iron Brigade and Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes for free while Microsoft puts them in games I don't really care about.

For what it's worth, J Allard was hyping up the microtransaction stuff in games during the original XBox 360 reveal at GDC 2005.

In addition, the expanded Gamertag and next-gen Xbox Live information includes information about the number of friends online, real-time challenges from other users ("Doomster wants to race!"), and "merit badges" - a manner of documenting a player's accomplishments and achievements - that can be seen on all users' Xbox Live Gamertags, alongside which games they've played and how long they've played them. This creates a kind of "baseball card" for each Xbox Live user, meaning it's much easier to size up suitable opponents and scout for worthy adversaries. Finally, direct interaction with gamers in terms of micro-transaction-driven game add-ons is simplified even further; game developers and creators can sell incremental content for dime or dollar, and not worry about transaction charges. The example he gave was extra add-on parts for Forza Motorsport cars.

(Source)

I suspect this isn't about subsidizing a couple of free games every month.

Elysium wrote:

Well, to be fair it must be hard to slam into people after they've all passed you.

Ouch. That one hurt me.

Elysium, I believe that now you are supposed to "drop the mic" or some such...

shoptroll wrote:

I suspect this isn't about subsidizing a couple of free games every month.

In the segment of my post you quoted there were really two thoughts.

Higgledy wrote:

In a sense, at the moment, we have asynchronous 'free to play' system. I get fantastic games that don't have micro-transactions like Iron Brigade and Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes for free while Microsoft puts them in games I don't really care about.

This was just me saying how I choose to see the situation. I'm not suggesting there is a direct link between the two things.

Higgledy wrote:

I suspect that Microsoft is hoping to use them as a way to fund giving away games for free in the future.

To expand on this a little more (as I maybe should have done in the first place :).) I think Microsoft, and to a certain extent Sony, have a problem when it comes to giving away games for free. Sony is doing it now but it must be costing them a pretty penny and Microsoft really has to start doing it on a grander scale in order to compete.

Giving away games is fine as a short term measure but to do it consistently over a number of years the companies need to recoup the money they lose from those sales some other way. Yes micro-transactions existed before this situation arose but that doesn't necessarily rule out them being used to balance the books and make giving games away a thing share holders will be okay with.

In reality I suspect that the titles with 'free to play' mechanics built in will be the games that are offered for free in the future.

You might be right, and I could well be wrong, but that is my unsubstantiated theory at least laid out a little more clearly.

Actually I imagine a lot of games that PS+ gives away for free have all hit a bit of a sales dip. They had their initial weekend/month, and then it was just bits and pieces of sales. This is my assumption, at least.

I also imagine a lot of those games tend to have DLC attached as well, or some other form of "pay us more cash" going on. And even then, most games are free for a limited time, so if you missed out, there's now all that extra word-of-mouth.

In the end, though, Microsoft's is the obvious "we're not even printing new discs" route of games that clog drawers and shelves in GameStops across the nation. They just announced Gears of War 1 as a free game for this coming month. A game that's what, 7 years old? And anyone with an Xbox has probably already played? Geh.

You know, maybe you guys should consider making Stan a donkey. There's a recurring theme starting to pop up in these gAmerS with jobS podcasts.

Certis wrote:

I'm winning the PR war in the battle for people being more likely to notice your Drivatar's malicious slamming into people compared to my unskilled slamming into people.

I think it was the sheer giddiness Elysium had when launching cars into the air. It was like Thor's hammer came smashing down on the track. Next-gen, indeed!

I think we should be able to make custom icons for our friends, so they can appear over their cars.

IMAGE(http://scottengel.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/martini-glass-1-sm.jpg?w=280&h=300)

Man, it feels like it took all day for me to listen to this one.

What? Oh, yeah, they do post the running time, lemme look at that.

HFS! 2 hours and 20 minutes??!!??

I kid Thanks for another great podcast, guys!

I've got a feeling that both the 360 and PS3 have another year or two left in them. Granted, Sony is taking a play from Old Nintendo, and continuing to release games for the "last-gen" console, but now there's going to be an entire new class of gamers who can finally justify spending $100 on a used 360, or even getting the hand-me-down from their friends and family that have upgraded to an XBONE.

HEY!

Don't tease me about a current-gen, AAA My Little Pony game! I'd play AND stream that with joy and pride.

(Applejack is best Pony)

This was a great week in podcasting. First Jeff is on the /filmcast, then he's on GWJ! Those podcasts are always great, but especially with Jeff Cannata.

Wasn't there a game on Greenlight we were supposed to support? Guess I'll have to go back and listen to the podcast again.

Eleima wrote:

Wasn't there a game on Greenlight we were supposed to support? Guess I'll have to go back and listen to the podcast again. :D

Gridiron Solitaire! It's in the notes up there.

Apologies!! The worst part is that I actually hovered my cursor over all of those and didn't see it the first time. IMAGE(http://siona512.free.fr/Smileys/Yahoo/Blush.gif)

I'm just gonna go ahead and blame sleep deprivation. Thanks, Certis!

I got to put in about 2 hours with my brother on his Xbox ONE over the holiday, and my thoughts on it are mixed.

Yay new hardware, but from what we played of Forza 5, Killer Instinct, and CoD: Ghosts, nothing screamed as looking better.

I love all the new touches - better voice commands, the built-in DVR, and it does seem to switch quickly between apps.

But I'm still at a loss for how poorly implemented the menu appears to be. Like, you can "back out" of an app, but then be at the same level where the app started from. Or dive into a new menu, but you actually some-how dived into the main Metro panel.

I know it'll get better, but so far, I'm still not seeing anything that is driving me to pick one up just yet.

I tried to train my friend's Drivatar to drive around courses in reverse. It did not stick.

Great episode, folks!

Personally, I'm in the "give the new consoles a year" category referred to in the discussion, but I love hearing about the new shiny and getting vicarious enjoyment through that.

The reading was really strong. Not that the other ones haven't been, but the article itself had extra tang. Mr Sands' pieces have been so balanced and reasonable of late, it felt odd listening to a reading of something by him filled with righteous anger. I liked it.

Out of pure appreciation for the chunkiness of this 'cast, I went and bought Captain Bubblenaut.

Great podcast. Curious to see if putting the Kinect on the top of TV helps it see your feet during Xbox Fitness. I'm having some troubles placing it correctly.

B-but I always use the knuckle technique with triggers... one of the reasons I dislike the dualshock 3 actually.

Sad to hear about the cheapness of the xbox one controller though. I havent held it yet, but the ps4 I tried felt solid and perfect. And I THOUGHT I had finally made my choice.

Schmutzli wrote:

B-but I always use the knuckle technique with triggers... one of the reasons I dislike the dualshock 3 actually.

Sad to hear about the cheapness of the xbox one controller though. I havent held it yet, but the ps4 I tried felt solid and perfect. And I THOUGHT I had finally made my choice. :(

I don't think it feels cheap but it definitely feels a little more cramped. I prefer the 360 controller for ergonomics (I wear large sized gloves). I think I'm just going to continue using that as my PC controller. The 7 hour battery life on the PS4 controller is a deal breaker for me.

Giftzwerg76 wrote:

HEY!

Don't tease me about a current-gen, AAA My Little Pony game! I'd play AND stream that with joy and pride.

(Applejack is best Pony)

It's not AAA, but look up Ponyvania!
*looks around* I only know about that cause of my love of Castlevania and not Rarity. I mean Fluttershy. I mean, uh, what's MLP?

---continuing the comedy beyond it's shelf life---
...and where did all this artwork of a shy, busty, human woman with pink hair, green eyes, a butterfly tattoo, and a yellow turtleneck sweater come from?
...and why the hell can't they date? Just because Spike's a dragon and Rarity's a unicorn and there's an age difference? He'll probably live to be hundreds of years old.
...and there's totally no proof that Rainbow Dash is a lesbian. This is a marketing machine, no way will they touch that.
...and I am immune to the flames of your Flaming Muffins! Long live Derpy!

whew, this last bit took lots of research*

*research = googling stuff

The bumpers can now only be clicked from the outside rather than anywhere. That's extremely annoying when your fingers aren't long enough to claw the controller but are long enough for your index fingertip to rest on the inner edge of the bumpers.