Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 382

Octodad, Next Car Game, Divinity Original Sin, Might & Magic X: Reborn, What We're Looking Forward to in 2014, Your Emails and More!

This week Shawn, Julian, Cory and Elysium look forward to the games of 2014!

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
00.01.36 Octodad
00.11.28 Might & Magic X: Reborn
00.16.00 Skyrim
00.17.19 Divinity: Original Sin
00.21.33 The Next Car Game
00.31.59 This week's topic: Games of 2014!
01.09.07 Your emails!

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Living in Reverse - Broke for Free - http://brokeforfree.com/ - 31:26

Simple Hop - Broke for Free - http://brokeforfree.com/ - 1:08:35

Comments

I think there's a problem with Julian's track at 1:13:00 or so - long periods of silence where it kind of sounds like someone might be talking.

Star Citizen is something i'm interested in, but I worry it will be a step beyond me. I haven't followed the development at all but I worry the feedback from the crowdfunders will end up being too much. Being just a good space flight/combat game would be good enough for me.

Weird! We'll upload a working file soon!

I had completely forgotten that I pledged to Divinity: Original Sin. Not only am I now reminded, I now have another thing to be excited about! I've got a good feeling about the next wave of kickstarted titles.

Damn! GWJ's aggressive new free-to-download monetisation system means if we want to hear the final 15 minutes of Julian's contributions we'll need to pay $1.99. I'd just feel better about forking out if there were funky hats available.

Ok, new file uploaded, now you can hear rabbit's pearls of wisdom.

legopirate27 wrote:

Damn! GWJ's aggressive new free-to-download monetisation system means if we want to hear the final 15 minutes of Julian's contributions we'll need to pay $1.99. I'd just feel better about forking out if there were funky hats available.

Dammit, missed opportunity!

Thanks!

My most anticipated game of 2014 is my most anticipated game of 2013 that got delayed a couple months. That game is Banished, which is releasing Feb 18.

Missed opportunity:
"It's fun at the beginning but does Octodad have legs?"

There's not anything I am super excited about this year. Banished, I guess. watch_dogs I am vaguely interested in but waiting to see some chatter about it. Worlds of Magic looks promising but a lot could go wrong there. Seems like it could be a kind of boring year, for me at least. Of course it may be that I don't follow games as closely as I used to and don't know about something I would be interested in until it gets close to release.

EU4 and CK2 expansions have me more excited than anything.

I think part of the reason Blizzard isn't launching a new Starcraft II expansion this year is that the SCII team is working on Heroes of the Storm. Also, they've said in the past they were having a hard time figuring out the mechanics they want to do with the expansion since they wanted that campaign to have an element of diplomacy and politics between the different Protoss clans.

EDIT:

Big games for me this year are: Burial At Sea Pt. 2, Transistor, Binding of Isaac Rebirth, Reaper of Souls, Mario Kart 8, and Smash Brothers

tboon wrote:

There's not anything I am super excited about this year. Banished, I guess. watch_dogs I am vaguely interested in but waiting to see some chatter about it. Worlds of Magic looks promising but a lot could go wrong there. Seems like it could be a kind of boring year, for me at least. Of course it may be that I don't follow games as closely as I used to and don't know about something I would be interested in until it gets close to release.

EU4 and CK2 expansions have me more excited than anything.

Worlds of Magic had me excited enough to contribute to the kickstarter, but their frequent "development updates" that are just shilling for other kickstarters are making me wish I hadn't.

Dragon Age Inquisition, Persona 5 (if it hits the US, though it probably won't 'till 2015), Final Fantasy XIII-3, Persona Q, Wasteland 2, Danganronpa, new Layton for the DS, FFX/X-2.. I'm expecting a good year just from the known knowns.. the unknown knowns'll make it yet another awesome year, probably

Awesome thanks for fixing the podcast! I've been listening off and on today at work and just got to the end. Been listening for a few months but just now commenting. Love the show! I'm excited for several games this year. Division and Destiny being my top games off the top of my head.

Regarding SNES emulation on the 3DS... Last month, ClockWorkhouse found an article about the 3D Classics games Sega did for some of their Genesis titles. Apparently, the 3DS ]isn't really good at doing 2D natively so they had to rebuilt these games from the ground up for the hardware.

NH: You’re leaving a lot of the story out. (laughs) The 3DS had a big change in architecture from the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance; it uses a GPU that specializes in stereoscopic 3D. When you bring software from an era when games were composed of sprites and backgrounds into an emulator on the 3DS, you wind up doing a lot of work in a very roundabout way. And that offsets the performance gains you get with the CPU. That’s why I said “they probably won’t work out.”

YO: So from the outset I was hearing that MegaDrive games on the 3DS would be hard.

NH: The MegaDrive for instance has two background layers and four pallets (color definition tables). Replicating that is the tough part.

I assume that the SNES VC is a similar situation to the Genesis/MegaDrive*, although I'm not sure why the NES, Gameboy, and Game Gear were possible, or even the GBA (which is currently available only to Ambassador program members) for that matter. Although the GBA VC games haven't been updated with proper "sleep" support (like the NES titles were), which makes me think that emulator isn't feature complete yet (and is why the games are not sold in the eShop 2 years later). There's also the huge can of worms regarding emulating the various add-on chips like Super FX that were regularly employed in later SNES titles, some of which took hobbyists properly years to emulate on the PC.

I also get a feeling that the Virtual Console is a "hobby" project at Nintendo given how slow they are to release new titles or systems for the service (and was the case even on the Wii). I'm sure there's also some business aspects to it as well such as licensing for 3rd party games or non-Nintendo hardware.

* If I'm reading this section of the Wikipedia article correctly, the SNES can have up to 4 background layers and up to 8 palettes depending on the display mode used. So what's hard to do for the Genesis is even harder for the SNES. Truly, Sega does what Nintendon't.

I think my 2014 top excitement picks are (in no particular order)...

Kentucky Route Zero
Wasteland 2
Pillars of Eternity
Divinity: Original Sin
Might and Magic X (once a Mac version comes out)
Transistor
Dragon Age III: Inquisition

Thanks for fixing the dropped audio - I really enjoyed that particular conversation!

Certis wrote:

Weird! We'll upload a working file soon!

Ha, I just finished listening the the original version while trying to clear my driveway. For a while it was as if I was hearing only part of a phone conversation.

Hrdina wrote:
Certis wrote:

Weird! We'll upload a working file soon!

Ha, I just finished listening the the original version while trying to clear my driveway. For a while it was as if I was hearing only part of a phone conversation.

I swear this time it wasn't my fault. Most other times? All me. Not this time!

I'm glad Julian is slowly coming around on realizing that Below is not a sequel to Sword & Sworcery, it's been a pet peeve of mine that he kept saying it is. I had a conversation with a developer from Capy about this confusion, and he was able to clear the relation between the two up for me. For the record, the only thing Below has in common with Sword & Sworcery is that Below is being made by about half the people who made Sword & Sworcery.

The Auto Assault reference returns once more!

I can't think of a single game I really want.
May 2014 be the year of my pile (I've got Xenosaga in my recently hooked up PS2).

RE: Gamer who hasn't fixed friend's dad's computer. So, if you're anything like me, then the reason you know anything about computers and have the ability to fix them is that you got into gaming and as a result, learned about computers. Did anyone think about that? I don't recall that being brought up, but I also only listened to the version with the silent parts, and had to stop listening half-way through the discussion.

Enjoyed this week's episode, now I want Octodad.

Also wanted to commend Certis for his behavior in the Sawbones plug. I thought it wise that he first argued the point of "biggest fan", supported it with evidence, then wisely backed off and allowed Mrs. Certis to finsih with the upper hand. I have a feeling your marriage is in pretty good shape! Well done, wise sir!

Regarding the "gamer at heart" letter, I've got to agree with Cory. There are many gamers that fit the stereotype.

I have in the past suggested we as gamers raise the bar a bit. Just a bit. By that I mean bathe daily, wear clean clothes, not live in filth, etc. I stated as much on rpg.net and I got hate for even suggesting such a thing.

One last thing. There are many gamers who are proud to be labeled as such and wear it on their sleeve. I'm happy for them. They live lives that allows them to do that. I have a serious job and I can state with absolute certainty that I would not have gotten to where I am had I been open about being a gamer. Make of that what you will.

@johnnype - I get where you are coming from - I've definitely worked at that office. Though, I think that stereotype is actually gradually shifting. I can totally see how it can still be a "negative" thing to be identified as a gamer in some quarters, but overall I think it is trending towards being as socially acceptable as any other hobby. Probably in part because there are more people who identify as gamers now than there were even ten years ago, and probably in small part thanks to mobile gaming. Additionally, being a nerd has become "cool" as well (Ice T's troubles with pegasi and places that aren't real notwithstanding.)

Someone (I forget who exactly) said that anyone who goes out of their way to identify solely as one thing tends to come off oddly. There's a difference between "being open" and "being blatant." I used to go out of my way to not mention that gaming was a hobby of mine. I'd hide D&D books in my closet, not leave computer game boxes in the open, etc. Now I'm comfortable enough to not worry about hiding it, though I certainly don't waltz into my office loudly declaring I'm a gamer. I could count on one hand how many times it has ever come up at work - and most of those incidents were due to a play I wrote that was gaming themed (it was written in the style of a Sierra On-line adventure game) that achieved enough success that someone in the office independently saw it without realizing I had written it.

I think the thing to do is not to hide it, not to flaunt it, but just be a productive member of society who also happens to be a gamer. Time is going to do the work of dismantling the stereotype of the lazy slob who lives at home and is socially awkward.

I am the "SpaceGhost05" that wrote the email...although I'm posting as Robedias27 (my steam name is Space Ghost).

mrtomaytohead - you nailed it. Because of gaming, I learned how to fix computers. The side-income helps me supplement income when my job slows down. I'm an autobody collision repair tech, which is normally a steady job...but when people aren't wrecking cars...I don't have much to rely on. I've also worked construction for 7 years prior to this job. Otherwise, the money I earn fixing computers goes towards my gaming habit. I HATE when people ask me to fix their computers in Church because that's not why I go to Church. So I tried to steer the conversation away from my "work". The guy i was talking to had another question about switching internet providers and he was going to lose his email address with that ISP. I said "I've had the same email since high school...like 10 years ago, why don't you get a gmail or hotmail account...something that's not tied to your ISP?" Then he responded "Well, if I can go without supporting Microsoft or Google, I'd rather not give them any business..." This is how we got to the topic of him thinking that Microsoft had monopolized the OS market for years. Then I was like......

btw, I honestly don't remember if I actually said "I'm a gamer at heart"...but the premise is the same. I shared with him about Valve's OS and how I only know about it because I play video games. My (weak) understanding is that SteamOS is meant to give Valve an escape route if Windows 8 tries to lock down the PC gaming market...so I thought it was relevant to his perspective.

At any rate...I feel like the GWJ hosts went a different direction from what I was anticipating. My point was not that I'm insecure about being a gamer...tied to the ugly stereotype...it was more that MAYBE not sharing that with everyone isn't for my sake...but for theirs. I wasn't hurt when he indirectly commented about me being lazy, I was annoyed at his "shorthand" as was suggested in the show.

Most of the people that I interact with regularly are those that I attend Church with. So I don't advertise that I'm a gamer because "video games are such a waste of time" or "video games are sinful" or "you should spend less time in video games, and more time doing Christian things"...

or the typical "you're a gamer...does that mean you play Grand Theft Auto?"...

In my world, I think the biggest conflict is the presumption that video games are not a valid use of your time, being a Christian. To the which I would reply...it's no different than watching a movie...or following football...or gardening...or ...

I need to stop now, I'm getting annoyed just thinking about it.

AND, I have to go back to work...

Has anyone started a Most anticipated games of 2014 thread?

Robedias27 wrote:

mrtomaytohead - you nailed it. Because of gaming, I learned how to fix computers.

Exactly. So gaming fed you into a(nother) 'productive' use of your time that now can be a job or even benefit others. You could take the time to remind anyone who is in that guy's shoes that had you not grown up playing games, you wouldn't be fixing computers.

Also, when other Christians start getting negative about things that are not actually sinful, I just remind myself of Romans 14. If I must, I'll remind them of it, too. At least that's the chapter in the Bible that always comes to mind for me.

S0LIDARITY wrote:

Has anyone started a Most anticipated games of 2014 thread?

Yep.

I'm looking forward to the official GWJ List - the games to get on each platform.

Please add SteamWorld Dig to the 3DS list.