Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 450

The Witcher 3, Agar.io, Tribes Ascend Dead?, Galactic Civilizations III, Your Emails and More!

This week Shawn, Elysium, Julian and Allen talk Witcher 3 and get caught up on your emails!

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.

Thread of The Week
Your gaming Kryptonite – Higgledy - Gremlin

Chairman_Mao's Timestamps

  • Subscribe with iTunes
  • Subscribe with RSS
  • Subscribe with Yahoo!
Download the official apps
  • Download the GWJ Conference Call app for Android
  • Download the GWJ Conference Call app for Android

Comments

Great episode as always. Do you have the link to the controller fix? Tried googling, but wasn't sure which one to install.

Otherwise I agree with Shawn (Andrich) about the game. It's fantastic.

A little confused about the comment of the loot text flashing up on screen for a split second. When I loot something in-game a box stays up on screen with a list. Is that a controller vs M&K thing?

imbiginjapan wrote:

A little confused about the comment of the loot text flashing up on screen for a split second. When I loot something in-game a box stays up on screen with a list. Is that a controller vs M&K thing?

I think he meant that rolling text status of things you just got say, after a quest.

Certis wrote:
imbiginjapan wrote:

A little confused about the comment of the loot text flashing up on screen for a split second. When I loot something in-game a box stays up on screen with a list. Is that a controller vs M&K thing?

I think he meant that rolling text status of things you just got say, after a quest.

I do chuckle a bit every time an NPC hands... something... to Geralt just out of view of the camera and a massive list of items start rolling by.

"Received 15x Baked Apples"
"Received 5x Horse Manures"
"Received 20x Brass Buckles"

and so on...

I assume everything in this world is in dehydrated form.

To be fair, I had issues with reading text with DA:I on the PS4 at first.

Being a part of both the DA:I and Witcher 3 threads it has been most interesting to see the wind change of retrospective opinions on DA:I.

I remember the RPG world was very high on Dragon Age when it came out, so much so that it garnered many end of year awards and even snagged a few GOTY wins.

To read about people's thoughts on it now 6 months later, it's almost like two different games. There was a larger-scale retro backlash against GTA 4 but that one took a few years to build up. (I adore GTA 4 and to hear the revisionism around that game you'd think it was some straight garbage)

I think maybe design advances are accelerating in many subtle ways as well as us consumers becoming ever more aware of good vs. bad design, which I credit much to the heightened transparency brought on by the Kickstarter / early access era. Eh, just some food for thought as I delay writing my morning reports here in the office...

*lurker pops in to correct Mass Effect misinformation*

The ME series has always had gender-divided content. All the romance options besides Liara, Kelly, and Kaidan in ME3 are restricted to a particular gender, and a femshep in ME and ME2 receives some comments a guyshep never receives. It doesn't bother me, but it is there.

*goes back to lurking*

Maclintok wrote:

Being a part of both the DA:I and Witcher 3 threads it has been most interesting to see the wind change of retrospective opinions on DA:I.

I remember the RPG world was very high on Dragon Age when it came out, so much so that it garnered many end of year awards and even snagged a few GOTY wins.

To read about people's thoughts on it now 6 months later, it's almost like two different games..

Exactly this.

If you guys are ever hard up for topics, I'd like to hear some of your opinions on what Maclintok describes here (phrased much better than I ever could, btw). I notice this tends to happen in other mediums as well--TV, film, books, etc.--but the pace of the "retrospective winds" seems to be much faster in video games, for some reason.

As always, I blame the internet.

Maclintok wrote:

Being a part of both the DA:I and Witcher 3 threads it has been most interesting to see the wind change of retrospective opinions on DA:I.

I remember the RPG world was very high on Dragon Age when it came out, so much so that it garnered many end of year awards and even snagged a few GOTY wins.

To read about people's thoughts on it now 6 months later, it's almost like two different games.

This has been interesting to see for me as well. Part of it is that a lot of the praise came while people were playing DAI (and a lot of TW3's praise is coming while a lot of people are playing it). I think this points to people in general being excited for the current thing and finding/picking at flaws once they are done and some time has passed. It is easy to overlook/live with flaws in a game while you are in the middle of it. Conversely, it is easy to magnify flaws in a game after you have had to time reflect on it.

Two-years-in-the-future tboon wrote:

TW3 was okay I guess. But the text was so hard to read. And that one quest was really dumb. And inventory management was a travesty. And I hate Geralt's voice. Remember when everyone thought TW3 was so great? TES: Summerset Isles though, that is what TW3 should have been!

I think GTA4 was a tipping point in that series. Having super-serious story up against crazy mayhem simulator gets more and more incongruous with each iteration of GTA.

Also, listening to Certis gush on the podcast was pretty great.

tboon wrote:
Maclintok wrote:

Being a part of both the DA:I and Witcher 3 threads it has been most interesting to see the wind change of retrospective opinions on DA:I.

I remember the RPG world was very high on Dragon Age when it came out, so much so that it garnered many end of year awards and even snagged a few GOTY wins.

To read about people's thoughts on it now 6 months later, it's almost like two different games.

This has been interesting to see for me as well. Part of it is that a lot of the praise came while people were playing DAI (and a lot of TW3's praise is coming while a lot of people are playing it). I think this points to people in general being excited for the current thing and finding/picking at flaws once they are done and some time has passed. It is easy to overlook/live with flaws in a game while you are in the middle of it. Conversely, it is easy to magnify flaws in a game after you have had to time reflect on it.

Yeah I think this is the main thing. I'm one of those people who has cooled on DAI and it's mainly because on replay the flaws are becoming more apparent. I'm realising that I spent a good portion of my 70 odd hour first play doing stuff that basically wasn't much fun.

I've missed the boat on Witcher 3 because my GPU is well below minimum spec, so I'll probably be exploring it once everyone else has cooled. The criticisms didn't stop me from enjoying the original, so it shouldn't effect me here.

I found myself amused at a reversal of the Witcher/DA:I opinions in comparing the glowing reception Titanfall received last year before swiftly being forgotten compared to the constant complaints Destiny received at launch and is still being played.

To me, this just communicates one simple truth : most people have no idea what they're talking about.

Which I suppose can segue into the question of what "relevancy" actually means re: Nintendo. I know I'm a huge Nintendo fanboy, but I'm more than aware that many folks in the GWJ audience has little to no interest in a game like, say, Splatoon. Be it the visual aesthetic, lack of voice chat or focus away from killing, I read enough of the kryptonite thread to know a lot of folks here would be completely disinterested. But that doesn't make the game irrelevant, nor do the specs of the platform it is on.

It's one of those ideas based on personal perspective. Ask Japanese players just how relevant any of the home consoles are. Or Hell, ask the person playing all those Clash of Clans or Game of War mobile titles just how relevant Witcher 3 is.

The games industry is a huge space, and it happens that Nintendo is relevant in a rather generous section of that space. It may not Venn Diagram with all sections of that space, but in the long run that means absolute dick.

ccesarano wrote:

To me, this just communicates one simple truth : most people have no idea what they're talking about

It may not Venn Diagram with all sections of that space, but in the long run that means absolute dick.

Amusing read. Irascible ccesarano. Good show.

ccesarano wrote:

I found myself amused at a reversal of the Witcher/DA:I opinions in comparing the glowing reception Titanfall received last year before swiftly being forgotten compared to the constant complaints Destiny received at launch and is still being played.

I think games that are polarizing in some way do better in the long term because they offer something unique for a particular audience. Others might hate the same aspect that draws a certain group of people to become dedicated players. A title with 'broad' appeal may not directly offend anyone's sensibilities and be well-regarded at the outset but in the end will be forgettable.

The problem with big-budget game development now is that in order to remain solvent they need to get the broad market involved no matter what the game's actual design. Destiny is a well-designed game for people who enjoy that particular kind of feedback loop, but in order for it to justify its massive budget it had to dress up as something it was not to pull a larger audience.