Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 323

Farcry 3, Battle of The Bulge, Cory's Street Fighter Journey, Part One of Our 2012 Retrospective, A Visit by Justin McElroy and more!

Part one of our 2012 retrospective! This week we talk about the games of the first half of 2012. We also have a segment with Justin McElroy to share his thoughts on the past year.

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
00.03.44 Farcry 3
00.07.36 Battle of the Bulge
00.12.42 Farcry 3 again!
00.17.14 The Hobbit (a movie)
00.24.13 Middle Manager of Justice
00.27.14 Cory goes to a fighting game tournament
00.34.50 Games for the first half of 2012!
00.56.44 - 01.10.28 Justin McElroy weighs in
01.10.56 More games of the first half of 2012!

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Melody Canyon - Bromaschinen - http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Br... - 34:22

Dotchidabe Bis - Bromaschinen - http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Br... - 1:10:29

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Comments

SF25 was such a great tournament. I couldn't make it out in person so I just watched the stream all day. Your experience really makes me want to try and go spectate more tournaments in the coming year. Maybe I'll even travel down to EVO again!

(Also Infiltration is Korean, eSports strikes again!)

EDIT: Also, nobody should EVER have to justify "Why E.Honda?". Best character. Only wants to spread the joy of Sumo!

The Double Fine game sounds neat - looks a lot like the Kairosoft games, like Game Dev Story. I'll keep an eye out for an Android port.

Did I hear that right? Battle of the Bulge in France ?! :-O

Boxing Day actually is about servants and tradesmen getting gifts from their employers, because they would have to go back to work the day after Christmas when everyone else was still taking time off to enjoy the holiday. They would receive a 'Christmas box' as a token of appreciation for their services.

Not dissimilar to leaving some cash for the mailman the day after Xmas in your mailbox.

Fine, most of the Battle happens in Belgium, happy?

I really thought that Boxing day was gaining steam here in the states. Maybe I was just too close to Canada.

I'm mostly a lurker and podcast listener, and I always enjoy the show, even though I don't always agree with your general consensus on certain games. I just have a quick remark in Justin McElroy's direction. I do agree with the notion that Kickstarter may be helping in pulling gaming design veterans back into it, and there's been a lot of development that I really like.

However, Jane Jensen has never left gaming designing the first place. After Gabriel Knight 3, she was involved with Oberon Media,which, granted, is more of a casual gaming developer. She created 'Gray Matter', which, despite having been stuck in development hell for a while, is a fantastic point & click adventure. Don't know if any of you have played it.

I reckon her going Kickstarter is more a case of wanting to independently design and develop games that she wants to make, without any publishers interfering. She's level-headed enough to set attainable goals on KS, and there's still an audience for the classic adventure game genre. I know I'm still hoping for Gabriel Knight 4...

I'm surprised Boxing Day hasn't been taken over by America. Another excuse for sales, right?

As for fighting games as a spectator's eSport, I'm fully on board with the comparison to Hockey. A fighting game is fast-paced and you can easily quantify how well a player is doing based on the health bar(s) of their character(s). The matches are faster as well, and there's never a moment where you're waiting for the player to finish making their decision.

I love hockey because it is a fast-paced sport in Three Acts. The structure of all three periods lends itself to a sense of rising action. No one is really too concerned in the first period. Second period you start biting your nails. By third period you may be pulling your hair out, or you may be gloating madly depending on how things are going.

Contrast to baseball, where what happens in seventh inning could completely undo any advantage in the second inning. Assuming you're awake by the seventh inning.

Fighting games are similar. Fight starts and BOOM! stuff is happening, it's easy enough to follow who is winning and who is losing, who is good and who is less good, and within a couple minutes at most you have a winner.

Hey so if you guys are interested in seeing the movie with the kind of "fake movie sheen" removed like the 48 frames a second hobbit, then you may want a new TV! or not, we have one at my house thats an LED "motion blur removal" set. It essentially does that for all things viewed on it. All of my friends are like, why does this look like pre-edited footage... and while I dont notice it anymore, everyone else does. Games look fantastic on it, but be warned your friends may not like watching things on your new tv lol

Legend of Grimrock is now available for the Mac (and Linux)! It's part of the new humble bundle.

thinkklinck wrote:

Hey so if you guys are interested in seeing the movie with the kind of "fake movie sheen" removed like the 48 frames a second hobbit, then you may want a new TV! or not, we have one at my house thats an LED "motion blur removal" set. It essentially does that for all things viewed on it. All of my friends are like, why does this look like pre-edited footage... and while I dont notice it anymore, everyone else does. Games look fantastic on it, but be warned your friends may not like watching things on your new tv lol

I've been noticing that with some Blu-Ray films in general. There are sections of X-Men First Class that look even more like they're on a set, and some parts that looked like they blended in so perfectly on the big screen were clearly blue-screened while viewing on an HDTV with HDMI cable.

But as you say, there are aspects of it you get used to

ccesarano wrote:

I'm surprised Boxing Day hasn't been taken over by America. Another excuse for sales, right?

'boxing day' 2008 was the 3rd best sales day ever for gamestop. Could have sworn I read it was their best. I remember this because I picked up a 'gamestop new' copy of deblob which had scuffs all over the disc when it was handed to me since they took it out of the package. I still took it because I was there, had wait nearly 30 mins in line after looking at the best buy across the streets about 15 remaining boxes of Wii games total and just wanted to get something and move on before the mob left standing in line would probably have lynched me if I raised much more of a stink.

Man, my memory holds on to the stupidest stuff.

Nah, I still remember getting to a mall about 10-11am to get my reserved copy of Contact for the DS, only the store was temporarily closed so the (Asst?) Manager could get herself a cup of coffee (it was a Tuesday so no help until about noon on those days). When we got in she hadn't even unboxed new shipments so she told us to come back around four or five. I walked over to the EB Games in the same mall and it was already unpacked and on the shelf, so my friend and I picked up our copies there and got the money back on our reservations.

Another incident at that GameStop, very same woman said they were only getting the $80 or so limited edition of the first Gears of War game on Tuesday and they were going to be the only store to have the game at all until Thursday. I went to Best Buy that Tuesday and got myself a regular copy of Gears of War.

Then there was the fiasco where I was trying to reserve...I think it was Lost Planet? I know Lost Planet was in the equation, but the guy kept reserving the wrong damn game. Three times I told him what I wanted, and each time he was like "Okay, so I have a reservation for [wrong game]. Is that it?" Drove me nuts.

Three strikes and they were out. I went to the EB Games in that mall instead, which was always a lot more neatly kept, the staff were much more friendly, and it was overall more professional. The strange thing is, this all happened AFTER GameStop bought EB Games.

thinkklinck wrote:

Hey so if you guys are interested in seeing the movie with the kind of "fake movie sheen" removed like the 48 frames a second hobbit, then you may want a new TV! or not, we have one at my house thats an LED "motion blur removal" set. It essentially does that for all things viewed on it. All of my friends are like, why does this look like pre-edited footage... and while I dont notice it anymore, everyone else does. Games look fantastic on it, but be warned your friends may not like watching things on your new tv lol

My new TV did that by default. Drove me insane. Luckily I found a way to turn it off.

rainynight65 wrote:
thinkklinck wrote:

Hey so if you guys are interested in seeing the movie with the kind of "fake movie sheen" removed like the 48 frames a second hobbit, then you may want a new TV! or not, we have one at my house thats an LED "motion blur removal" set. It essentially does that for all things viewed on it. All of my friends are like, why does this look like pre-edited footage... and while I dont notice it anymore, everyone else does. Games look fantastic on it, but be warned your friends may not like watching things on your new tv lol

My new TV did that by default. Drove me insane. Luckily I found a way to turn it off.

Seriously?! Ima dig through some menus, at least so when my friends come over they aren't immediately bothered by it. Great for watching sports though.

thinkklinck wrote:

Seriously?! Ima dig through some menus, at least so when my friends come over they aren't immediately bothered by it. Great for watching sports though.

Yeah, apparently it's good for sports. Is your TV an LG? Look for the TruMotion function.

It is I believe, I will check into it

So the Wii had one great game this year and it came out in the 1st half of 2012 in North America, but got no mention, even in passing. Some reviews even called it the best jrpg this generation. Xenoblade Chronicles.

Was it because it could have been imported last year? Or noone played it at all?

mrtomaytohead wrote:

So the Wii had one great game this year and it came out in the 1st half of 2012 in North America, but got no mention, even in passing. Some reviews even called it the best jrpg this generation. Xenoblade Chronicles.

Was it because it could have been imported last year? Or noone played it at all?

Did anyone ever discuss it on the Conference Call? I remember we gave Sean a lot of flack for skipping over it the week of its release, but no actual conversation.

I remember that too.

Dear Lord, who is that guy who keeps saying, paraphrased, "It was so sad that I won't be able to experience this for the first time ever again."? Please help him find another pathos.

Hello There, I was listening to the podcast with my husband in the car and heard you talking about the Vita.

As a old fashioned girl and so called luddite, I received a limited addiction Assassin's Creed 3 Liberation Vita as an early Christmas present from my husband a computer programmer and avid gamer. I wasn't sure what to do with it and resisting getting it to begin with. I was pleasantly surprised how much fun and easy it is to use. In the past I got on my husband's case about gaming on his free time, but now it seems I've been gaming just as much as he has. I give the Vita 9 out for 10 stars. I also love how easy it is to use youtube. I'm having a great time gaming and it turns out I'm pretty good. I can't wait to see what else I can do with it.

Sweet! Welcome to the Vita fold. You looked into the Playstation Plus subscription? Lots of great games for free doing that.

RolandofGilead wrote:

Dear Lord, who is that guy who keeps saying, paraphrased, "It was so sad that I won't be able to experience this for the first time ever again."? Please help him find another pathos.

That would be me. Sorry it bugged you.

rabbit wrote:
RolandofGilead wrote:

Dear Lord, who is that guy who keeps saying, paraphrased, "It was so sad that I won't be able to experience this for the first time ever again."? Please help him find another pathos.

That would be me. Sorry it bugged you.

I'm sure it's OK, so long as your sorrow is an exciting experience for you.

rabbit wrote:
RolandofGilead wrote:

Dear Lord, who is that guy who keeps saying, paraphrased, "It was so sad that I won't be able to experience this for the first time ever again."? Please help him find another pathos.

That would be me. Sorry it bugged you.

Regardless Julian, I often feel the same way about first experiences. One of my great recent joys was watching my son play Portal for the first time and seeing him have many of the same aha moments that I had. It almost, emphasis on almost, was like experiencing it again for the first time.

You could always pay a hypnotist to block away the memory of the game until the second time you finish it - then you could have TWO first times! Win?