SquadCast Mission: Spec Ops: The Line

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If ever there were a game tailor-made for the Squad, it’s Yager’s Spec Ops: The Line. Pete, Mark, Calin, Alex and special guest MJPilon stroke their chins thoughtfully over the nature of war.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS from the outset.

Be sure to leave a comment in our G+ Community. Next mission is Alpha Protocol — join the discussion here.

Music in this episode:

The Black Angels — Bad Vibrations
Deep Purple — Hush (Remastered)
Martha Reeves & The Vandellas — Nowhere to Run
Alice in Chains — Rooster

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The Squadron of Shame HorrorCast

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Pete, Mark, Calin and Alex get together for a discussion of all things horrific and horrible, taking in Corpse Party, Home, Lone Survivor, Amnesia, Penumbra and other spooky treats.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS for all of the above from the outset.

Be sure to leave a comment below or in our G+ Community.

All music in this episode is from Corpse Party: Blood Covered.

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[Pete's note: Apologies for the huge delay between our recording of this in November and it finally getting uploaded -- real life happened a bit. Due to the long delay between recording and publishing, some things we mentioned as "coming soon" (like the sequel to Corpse Party) are now actually available. Curiosity still sucks, though.]

SquadCast Mission: Quest for Glory

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The Squad tackles Sierra’s classic RPG/adventure hybrid series Quest for Glory. For nearly four hours. Featuring Pete Davison, Mark Whiting, Calin Grajko and Alex Fisher.

Be sure to leave a comment below!

Music credits:
Late Snows of Winter (by OCRemix user jmr)
Quest for Glory 4 Remix (by YouTube user mofojungle)
Quest for Glory 4 Castle Theme (OST)
Quest for Glory 1 Medley (OST)
Erana’s Piece (arranged by YouTube user NRGFORCE)

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SquadCast Mission: Nier

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The Squad take on Cavia’s peculiar, tragic, bleak and darkly humorous action RPG Nier, coming face to face with intersex characters, talking books and questions regarding the morality of video game violence along the way.

Featuring Pete Davison, Mark Whiting, Calin Grajko and Alex Fisher.

Further reading: Grimoire Nier fan translation

@angryjedi on a related note, can you believe the first Squadcast was FOUR YEARS AGO? How insane is that?

Quest for Glory

Mission Start!!

All right, people. It’s been a while since we did a group mission, and recent talk of Quest for Glory suggests that this might be a good one for future podcasting. While the upcoming podcast’s topic is already set, let’s get some discussion rolling on this now so people have some thoughts to share in time for the next one.

Grab the Quest for Glory series from GOG.com here for $9.99.

The VGA remake of Quest for Glory II can be found here.

Since a few of us are going to be playing Diablo III when it launches, I’ve opened a sticky thread at the top of the page so we can exchange Battle.net and character details and thoughts on the game.

I’ve also archived a couple of the previous stickies to keep things clean.

Remember, you can always find past mission threads here, past podcast episodes (from Season 2 onwards) here and past Squad Music Mixes here. These links are also in the sidebar.

The SquadCast will return very shortly! It’s looking increasingly likely we’re going to do a lot more “mission” podcasts in the near future, as we have a whole heap of awesomeness queued up and ready to talk about. We’re recording the first of these next weekend (not this coming one) so you can expect something new to fill your lugholes with for several hours within a couple of weeks. Joy!

In the meantime, have you listened to Chris and Jeff’s new show “Too Old For This” yet? Find ‘em on Facebook here and Twitter here. Or just subscribe in iTunes here.

@feenwager Yes. Squad Leaders assemble.

*ponders out loud* Hmmmm. @cgrajko has just finished Nier… @bluesforbuddha and @rampantbicycle have played Nier… I have a copy of Nier on my shelf… could this be a contender for a mission podcast? Who would be interested in listening to that?

Actually, I wanna go on about Dragon Quest IX a little bit. Yes I am loving the game, but not precisely because I don’t want a story. I was just impressed at subtle and efficient its “narrative” was compared to most other recent JRPGs. Sure there’s not much of a story in the game, but what’s there is told in a succinct manner that reminded me of pre-FFVII RPGs. Instead of taking 30 minutes of plot exposition just to explain what’s going on, they tell you just enough to get you interested in the world enough to explore it and discover it for yourself. It’s not really the story or the gameplay that get’s me interested in RPGs. It’s exploring the worlds, and DQIX let me do that a lot more than most JRPGs these days.

Now, DQIX is my very first DQ game, so I have no idea if the other ones have a similar ability to not inundate you with hours of needlessly melodramatic dialogue.

It’s also worth noting that you guys already mentioned all of my favorite JRPGs in the podcast: FFXII, Skies of Arcadia, and Grandia II.

@redswir1 glad you dug it. It’s funny, but until we started talking about it, I had never really given any thought to the cost of producing HD assets as a big issue for the genre.

I wish I had the time and inclination to play more of the quality stuff that showed up on the DS and PSP, but there just isn’t enough of either to go around.

Finishing up the JRPG squadcast now, and I think you guys pretty much said what needed to be said. I like how you guys didn’t crap all over the mechanical “antiquities” commonly called out in JRPG discussions.

I feel like the main problem is just production. Most of those companies just can’t afford to make those games on the Xbox 360 and PS3. It’s like 480p assets are their limit from a money standpoint. It saddens me though that you guys haven’t tried more RPGs on the DS. Some of them are great games that feel like the games from the late SNES and PS1 days.

I think production was the main problem with FFXIII too. If you read that game’s postmortem, they just couldn’t get a good design concept together until very late in the process. My problem wasn’t the linearity (FFX was equally linear), but the fact that you did nothing but battle. There was no world to interact with. It felt like Square couldn’t really produce a full game in any reasonable amount of time with assets of that level (FFXIII was their very first internally-developed PS3 game). Just look at how long Versus XIII is taking them.

Other than that I guess it’s poor writing that we can now notice because we’ve been exposed to better. Just look at P4. Very Japanese, but excellent characters nonetheless.

Squad Primer: The JRPG

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@angryjedi Oh, I’m getting a mic. Time to get all official and shit.

@shingro A fair response. I wasn’t suggesting anything less than three hours of analysis is ‘light and fluffy’, though. It’s perhaps more a question of brevity, considering the squadcast itself goes out to more than just the folks here. And, let us not forget that thoughts written here are as legitimate as the discourse within a Squadcast. With the benefit of embedding links, pics yadda yadda, one fully-featured post goes a long way.

I still reckon you’ve got the numbers of intrigued and knowledgeable parties on the topic of JRPGs and Japan in general in abundance around here, though. Try extolling the virtues of Unity of Command…talk about a tough crowd! Even if I ran in here in the same exuberant manner your fine self did with Katawa Shoujo, pronouncing the arrival of “The Stalingrad Campaign wargame FOR EVERYONE! Be ye not afraid of the Mass Grave of the Wermacht!”, I can safely and wryly assume there would be nary a bump on the cardiograph of interest.

You’re in good company, my friend.

—

Hmmm. For a game that’s been panned by a fair portion of the old Jagged Alliance guard, I am loving this Back in Action business like nobody’s…uh…like it’s going out of fashion. The tactical combat mechanics, the snappy pace of a “choose when you want to go turn-based” system is terrific. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s a very underrated piece of work. Interestingly, I think @redswir1 might find it rather satisfying, given the man’s proclivities for OG Ghost Recon/Rainbow Six and things like SWAT. Back in Action does give you the full breadth of locales to have ballistic discussions in, but I could see it working really well in a polished urban environment, ala SWAT 2 modernised.

Or Shadow Watch. Remember that one?! If there’s a GoG title I may request, it just might be that little Red Storm doozy.

Ok, first things first: we started the Squadcast with the idea that it was another way to generate more discussion. Mission accomplished.

Second: thanks to Pete for explaining how we want to move forward with the show. He did a good job of summing it up. That boy should probably be like, a writer or something. The overall goal was to create more episodes, more often, and it was basically my idea so if you hate it you know who to yell at.

Third: The Primers are not going to get as chin-strokey or fall as far into the rabbit hole as either of the other two Squadcast variants. This is by design, and as a response to the listeners that have asked for shows that don’t run upwards of three hours. Hopefully the Primers can be a way for new listeners to check us out as well.

D: You guys don’t know how happy the recent swell of discourse in these here parts has made me. I’m even ok when people are mad at me. Means I’m doing my job.

Finally: @shingro I think I may surprise you on this episode. Well, a little.

@shingro Great points, and we’ll be interested in what you think of the ‘cast when it’s released. For the record, the reason it was a small cast was simply to keep the discussion simple, clean and snappy — as you may have noticed, since we started doing the “topic” shows we’ve been making an effort to try and keep a regular lineup of people on the show rather than the ever-rotating-and-expanding groups who participated on the mission podcasts. Your not being on the show was nothing to do with anything you did on the KS podcast, I might add — you did a fantastic job on there! Rather, the show was arranged as a relatively short-notice, small scale thing as an experiment in a new format. We hope you like it, and that it prompts some discussion here.

While we’re on, I thought I’d share our/my thoughts for the SquadCast going forward.

I’ve proposed and we’ve discussed having three different types of shows, and rotating among them according to demand, relevance and availability. These will be:

• SquadCast Topics: The long, topic-based shows where we discuss a general issue relating to gaming and how games of the past and present have addressed this fact. These will likely stick with a small, set cast of me, Mark, Jeff and, if/when he gets a new mic, Chris.
• SquadCast Primer:A shorter, genre-focused show such as the JRPG one we just recorded. We discuss the genre’s genesis, our earliest memories of it, the “golden age” of the genre, if there was one, where it is now and where it’s going. Will also stick with a small, set cast for brevity’s sake. Between the members of our regular team, we have a diverse array of interests ranging from indie-centric (me) to mainstream (Chris and Jeff) via somewhere in between (Mark).
• Squad Missions: Yep, the Katawa Shoujo show reminded us how much fun this formula is, so it’d be nice to start doing them more often again. This will obviously take a bit more organisation than we have at the minute, so it may be a little while before this becomes a “regular”-ish thing, but plans are in motion to assist with that organisation. I propose that mission shows have more flexibility in their casts and the size of said cast, as not everyone in the Squad is going to want to participate in every mission.

It’s good that you’re passionate about all this, @shingro — you’re a valuable, active and super-awesome member of the Squad and we’ll be very interested to hear what you think of our discussion.

Re: the Silent Hill 2 thing — we all love Silent Hill 2, and you have to understand that the fact we seemingly tore it to shreds was a “cruel to be kind” sort of thing. The point we were making was that Silent Hill 2 transcends its own limitations to become an awesome game despite its irritating factors. A lot of games don’t manage this, putting people off with clunky mechanics or whatever, meaning that people never get to explore what might be an awesome story, characters, whatever. Silent Hill 2, however, managed to make people want to play it despite the fact that, say, the combat wasn’t very good, or some of the puzzles were a bit incongruous.

As I wrote in my blog yesterday, though, it’s good to disagree and to speak up — that’s how dialogues and debates get started

True enough, though the question I’d then ask to you is “Are the Squad the people who want the entry-level light and fluffy discourse?” “do people come to the squadcast when they don’t want anything too hard?’ I don’t think anyone here, even the people who dislike certain genres intensely, lack the basic vernacular. As far as I’m aware even the most casual member of the squad has a pretty broad knowledge of gaming and gaming history, even if they aren’t themselves interested in this or that topic.

Of course this doesn’t PRECLUDE those people from wanting the basics, or something easy-like in the earholes for the commute. On the other hand, since podcasts are hard to get together, and no one is talking the higher level game outside very specific GDC sort of stuff, I get a weird sorta ‘precious resource wasted! D:’ twitch, which, apparently, explodes in a big mess of questions and concepts before the podcast even drops XD.

I guess it depends on how you look at the Squad, usually I’ve thought of it as a general collection of people who’ve gamed For Some Time and thus have at least One Dude who can bring forth even the most esoteric knowledge out of the depths of history. everyone knows a little of everything and a couple dudes know One Thing Damn Well, and there’s enough people that most every facet of gaming is covered, so people can be drawn out for this or that podcast. The one specialist and 3 generalists sort of format.

Of course, about half the active squad just swore off Classic Gaming for an indeterminate number of years. So… I guess that kinda shows how much I know. =P If you told me that would happen when the squad was doing missions like Homeworld I would have told you you were out of your goddamn mind.

The perspective of “Yeah we got together to talk a little JRPG” definitely leads to a more calming element on the completionist, enthusiast side of me though. I’ve made my peace with it, and inevitably I will disappoint your expectations whenever the thread actually arrives XD. Though I think there is a wider ‘what do we want as the squad?’ question brewing in the brainbox. If not the Squad, then who besides big company research groups is asking “Why did this work, why did that work, why exactly, do people pick up the controller?”

It’s entirely possible, maybe even likely I’m projecting what I want to see onto the squad mindset. Hard to say, the eye can observe all but itself and all that rot. No reason we can’t have both Gaming 101 and 501, after all two of my favorite missions are Pathologic (heavy analysis) and Barkley’s Shut Up and Jam (downright wacky laughter the whole way through) Just hard to tell them apart since everything’s under the same sort of title.

Goddamn it, look at that, second wall of text in the same night, I gotta get some sleep >_>
Still, what do you think?

@angryjedi It’s one of my only real sore points with the squad, I’ve had to sit on squad recommendations to two good friends of mine because they would chew horseshoes and spit nails at that ‘cast. Basically the first 45 minutes of Silent Hill 2 squadcast (actually talking about the game, post-whatchabeenplayin) is Chris (papapishu version) just full out dumping on Silent Hill 2, every mechanical element, thematic element, comparing it to Gilligan’s island and then comparing that to the bible like… it wasn’t good, it was one of those ‘shake the computer monitor and shout ‘AAAA THIS ISN’T WHY THIS GAME IS RELEVANT OR IMPORTAAAAANT WE’RE NOT GIVING REVIEW SCORES HERE WHY ARE WE EVEN TALKING ABOUT THIIIIIIiiiiiiisssss…. D: D: D:’

To be fair, the second segment managed to come around when beige/pete got into some more chin strokey segments which is where Silent Hill shines, but jeeze that first segment was really hard to stomach if you were a fan of that game. Some of pishu’s criticisms were certainly relevant, but not ‘lets use the entire first segment for that’ relevant, and yeah the fog IS there to cover draw distance sure, but that’s not WHY the fog is important… that sort of thing. I dunno, that is the danger of being too close and too interested in the subject matter.

It is true that that cast is a pretty good set for the squad, Pete’s a super solid contender in JRPG land and can talk some modern direction with some of the mainstream stuff. Beige also has some good history though I can’t think of too many modern JRPGs besides Dark Souls(which aesthetically went more WRPG honestly, but still carries the strong single vision element) recently. Feen, well… my impression is that the more ‘japanese’ a game gets the less Feen likes it, and feen has a tendency to steer conversations (like pishu did in the Silent Hill 2 podcast) into dark sad places.

I still value his opinion ’cause even if we disagree on a lot of things it’s always good to see things from the other side, and he doesn’t… ‘cheat’ in discussing things, like he doesn’t want to ‘win’ a conversation which is top marks for a debate opponent, but I’m terrified that it’ll end up in the same ‘dying breed/lack of connection’ conversation that every video game podcast everywhere on the internet has already had. A relevant topic, but one talked to death. Especially when there’s so much more to say.

I guess if we talk about JRPGs from a historical perspective that’s fine, I don’t really know who here played the Suikodens/Vagrant Story/Valkyrie Profile/Breath of Fire/xenogears/Azure Dreams/Star Oceans/Tales ofs. Maybe there’s a solid base here. I also worry over the missed opportunity of talking about some of the modern direction of JRPGs things like Mana Khemia, Hyperdimension Neptunia (not good imho for the record), Ar Tonelico, Radiant Historia, Artilie Iris/rorona/Totori/Meruru etc.

Then there’s a bunch of hybrids and odd things that are along the side, does Disgaea count as a JRPG? Front Mission? SRPG sure, but the story/pacing/characters/etc are JRPG-style. What about Metal Gear Solid 4? Why don’t you see new development and translation of JRPGs ala Legend of the Dragoon, Shadow Hearts or Baten Kaitos? How did the same team who brought us Xenogears (amazing) bring us Xenosaga 1-3 (decent at best) and what happened in between those two events that changed the landscape?

How does this tie in to the difference between the broad strokes of Japanese and western development? (Single vision niche vs focus tested, safe mass market) Is the american indie scene and it’s explosion partly because of it scratching the itch/ filling the niche of strong (occasionally bizarre) artistic visions that are out of synch with ‘what is normally done?’

Most people haven’t followed JRPGs out into these years, you really gotta go off the beaten track to find the modern examples. Most people still talk about JRPGs as they last knew them from the Final Fantasy VII era and it drives me a bit up the wall, like being stuck behind a glass wall while someone reminisces “Hey remember jazz? Why doesn’t anyone make jazz anymore?” while you’ve been following small jazz artists for the last 5 years =P

I dunno, I’m probably too close to this particular topic to listen with the sanguine heart of a still pool. As always I’m excited to hear everyone’s perspective, more podcast=better, I certainly don’t expect everyone who talks games to know absolutely everything about the topic, and there isn’t a set of guys in the industry that I’d RATHER hear from and trust to do it justice.

Still, I’m not sure what sort of post is going to come out of me at the end of it because this is exactly the game type that I’ve followed for my entire adult life and when you spend that much time on something the need to correct/correlate/instruct in that element is overpowering, and you can’t do a ton of that before you sound like an asshole, and I’d rather not punch the ‘asshole’ card here particularly *because* of how much I like our crew here :/ XD

For what it’s worth, I’m thrilled that a podcast came out on this topic but at the same time I’m the most afraid of people I like and respect discussing this topic. XD what a weird place to come to eh? =P

@angryjedi Ha! That’s the same thing I was thinking.

The new SquadCast is just @feenwager, @angryjedi, and @bluesforbuddha for this go. I had to stay behind due to microphone inadequacies that I’ll remedy for the next one. Don’t worry @shingro, they’ve all got quite the JRPG background. I’m sure it’ll be a great listen.

Idly curious, who was the cast for this one? Besides that what was the trigger for this? Other then Pete I can’t think of who has serious JRPG chops in the current Squad podcasting lineup. It’s certainly a topic near and dear to my heart so I’m looking forwards to hearing thoughts about it.

I guess look forwards to my wall of text play-by-play for when this comes up, I won’t lie though, I’m a bit scared it’s going to be a long version of the first 45 minutes of the Silent Hill 2 episode. =P but maybe that’s just the ‘just got off a really hard day at work’ talking. c_c

@feenwager A Squadcast under three hours?! Hot damn.

@feenwager Good heavens! And praise be!

Guess what just happened? We recorded a new type of Squadcast: a shorter, more focused episode. We spoke about a single genre: JRPG’s.

Really looking forward to you guys and gals hearing it and letting us know what you think.

Good to see so much more chatter around here. Maybe someday when I’m not in the middle of a life-altering move, I’ll hop in and chat, too. Here are some quickies.

HAWT Shit:

• Billings, Montana – It’s cold, sparse, friendly, and beef lovers want for nothin’. Folks, I think I may have found a place I can call home.
• The “loli cripple porn” SquadCast (I kid) – Amazing job, guys. Leave it to the Squad to make such a niche title appealing to even the most uninterested player. @shingro, you did a hell of a job on the show. Hope you can hop on future episodes, too.
• Hero Academy – I love it because of one thing: limitations. Each side only gets 5 actions per turn and deciding how to best maximize your turns hits my happy chord. Plus, we’re getting dwarves on 2/22. Much love to my fuzzy kindreds.
• Idle Thumbs returns – You mean people will financially support a kick ass podcast? I guess a few people seem up for it. Let’s hope this trend continues.

Horse Shit:

Navigating a ’17 foot UHaul truck towing a car through a snowstorm. That’s an adventure I shant be returning to unless at gunpoint.

If you haven’t checked the podcast thread above, take a look now for an awesome comment from a new listener, @wrdsmth. We’ve also had a very positive response over on the official KS forums, too — check it out.

@redswirl I dunno, dyson power? I think a full squadcast showing up from it coming together last minute had something to do with it

As for tonight’s adventures, I can say that Soul Calibur V is absolutely a game made for competitive play. this ISN’T a recommendation necessarily. Single player is incredibly sparse, story is crazytime, it’s best features are
1. Training mode is amazingly flexible in testing specific scenarios, randomizing certain programmable movesets which permits recognition training of mixups, setups and Ukemi traps
2. Very balanced, we won’t know for a few month’s yet but I can’t think of anyone besides the mimics who ‘cannot compete’
3. Simplified movesets and revamped engine makes things extremely percise, movelists are smaller, but a larger % of moves are ‘functional’ large changes to the Guard Impact systems encourage ‘exciting’ play (more offense, mixups and traps, no more Step-A battles and such)

All these items are based around things like ‘improving your game’ and ‘an even match of strength’ and suchlike. If that sounds great, then by all means roll in and take a look, but if you like just going story-modes and suchlike, skip it, they really didn’t put much attention there.

Also: Squadcast yaaaaaay~ poor Mike This is all part of my Devious Plan to liberate Rin you know c_c (but naw, I think I’ll stick with Emi, she’s probably better for me, consider this my peace offering c_c)

Perhaps now that it’s actually out I will stop obsessing over all the things I forgot to say or said wrong (my favorite is I’m pretty sure I said Urotsukidoji when I ment Utawarerumono! Ha! Haha! It’s… it’s funny ’cause… uh…. y-you see… um… w-wh…. where is everyone going… ¬_¬

I hope people will forgive me my nervous vocal ticks =P I gotta say, I have a far greater respect for people who are able to go on a recording and just sound like it ‘ain’t no thang~’ so to speak.

Also: a Katawa Shoujo thread sounds like it might be handy now that there is a podcast for it. It doesn’t exactly have any problem with exposure, plus it’ll help blunt the chilling effect of the minor recent drama and the normal social pressures that normally encourage people to remain silent on the topic of ‘the feels’. My end game goal for everything ever is for people to bring as much of themselves as they can to whatever discussion is at hand. When that happens it is, in a word. Rad.

SquadCast Special Mission: Katawa Shoujo

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Wrapping up the Squadcast now. Just a couple more things to say, one of them possibly a wall of text.

Ready Player One. I read the iBooks sample and am simultaneously sold and cautious in regards to it. You guys say it was written for you, and I think that book’s laser focus might be an issue for it as well.

A lot of that books seems to be based on 80′s culture and actually having been there. I’ve never seen either Ghostbusters movie all the way through (we can get to my ridiculous movie pile of shame later) for one example. Generally speaking, 1980′s culture is as ancient to me as anything before 1975 might be to some of you guys. I am just outside of that bracket, and I am afraid that too much of the book will just fly over my head.

So I ask, what are the reactions you’ve seen from younger people reading RPO?

Second thing: Upcoming Game Consoles. I definitely do agree that Apple has changed the game here, but I also believe that the console manufacturers, Microsoft at least, are beginning to have an idea of how to react. The endgame of Microsoft’s big living room plan is starting to take shape.

The latest Xbox 360 update is trying to turn the console into something that’s no longer just a game machine, but a set top box for TV, movies, just media in general. On top of that the rumors are getting stronger and stronger that MS isn’t even going to bill the next Xbox primarily as a game console. We can see where they’re going already with the other pieces of the puzzle: Windows 8, Windows Phone, their tablet interface, etc. They are gearing up to lock horns with Apple.

The one place where MS probably has a chance to beat Apple to the punch is in the living room. The main reason MS went and blew $4 billion on the original Xbox was to build a beachhead there. One day Apple will release something involving a television screen and their app store, and when that thing starts to have popular games designed for it, traditional consoles are going to feel affected, and that’s probably where MS is trying to go first. I for one welcome a future where I can turn on one box for all of my TV shows, movies, and games. Technically though I could already do that by building a PC and hooking it up to a television, so we’ll see.

The extent to which Sony and Nintendo get this is the real question. Sony’s promoting a shitload of apps for the Vita, trying to get Netflix ready for the US launch and all. The question is can they dredge up significant third party support in regards to apps. Will anyone actually want to carry around a Vita for general social networking and media consumption? How far would they be able to take this on their next console?

I think there’s some potential there for Sony. My PS3 has been my primary movie-playing device whether it’s downloads, Netflix, or on a disc. When HBO GO and YouTube apps show up shit will most certainly get real.

What I really wanna take a bit of issue with though is the prediction that the Wii-U will be Nintendo’s last console. If this were purely based on Nintendo’s popularity or relevance that might be true, but financially speaking I just don’t see that happening.

Money is the one big difference between Nintendo today and Sega at the turn of the century. Sega was bleeding money from the Saturn and Dreamcast years. Even during the N64 and Gamecube years Nintendo was still making money. The Gamecube was more profitable for them than the PS2 was for Sony, despite the PS2 having sold probably six times as many units. That’s the difference with Nintendo’s revenue model. Add to that the shitload of money they made off of the Wii and you have a massive war chest that could likely get them through two more “failed” console generations. If one of the big three is in danger of calling it quit’s for gaming hardware after next gen, it’s Sony.

As for the Wii-U itself, hard to say. The more we hear about next gen hardware, the more it looks like the Wii-U will probably be able to run the same games that come out on the next Xbox, just not as pretty. It probably mostly depends on them being able to strike lightning again with Wii-Sports and whatnot. When it comes to general relevance though I wanna go back to that whole multi-functionality thing that I think will be so crucial to the other guys.

Numbers have shown that the Wii is actually the most popular Netflix streaming device (a lot of people didn’t even realize their Wiis could go online until they found it they could get Netflix on it). Hulu Plus is coming to both it and the 3DS (which already has Netflix). All Nintendo really needs to do is realize the value in that shit, especially for them since Nintendo tends to sell their hardware at-profit.

That’s just what I think though.

Okay so I’m in the middle of the last Squadcast here. A couple things on tutorials:

The Anno 2070 Manual

I forget most of the time too, but Steam does host PDF manuals of a lot of its games. A while ago I was pretty blown away by the Indiana Jones manuals I download from Steam.

Secondly, here’s another video about good and bad tutorials: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FpigqfcvlM&feature=plcp&context=C31fd226UDOEgsToPDskJUTQKnqbKFs62JqBXEfUdY

To @rocgaude, @feenwager, @beige and @angryjedi, thanks very much for another fine production. Had a jolly old time with the new squadcast. Not much I can comment on, outside of being a Vita owner and someone who has finished Golden Abyss.

Let’s just say the Vita has a greater shot – despite the godawful fucking mooing from the peanut gallery – at tickling the fancies of a post-iOS gamer crowd. The touchscreen and interface coalesce slickly and IF Sony do the right thing by the developer crowd and encourage the growth of an (Gawd, I hate this tech-speak/Tested terminology) application ecosystem, the Vita has the capacity to be everything detractors have wanted from iOS gaming from the beginning. It is a light machine, the OLED screen is big and bright and there’s a responsiveness to the UI that has to this day been dominated solely by Apple.

The benchmark set by the Smartphone coup should be a catalyst for Sony – no stranger to sleek UI and interfaces for the most part – to capitalise on what perhaps the original PSP tried to do in a multimedia and use capacity.

The audience, however, is the killer. Will those clamouring for iOS controllers bother acting upon their alleged grievances and see what the Vita has to offer? I hope so, but probably not. I’ve never bought into the mindset that big production games should be anchored solely to consoles, and with the Vita’s screen, it certainly allows for visual real estate that doesn’t compromise or feel constricted or detract from the experience. There’s multitasking, there’s planned emphasis on PS3 interconnectivity and, like Motorstorm RC or WipEout 2048, cross-platform play AND receiving both platform versions for the price of one game…

…some folks might say the system exists in some sort of limbo space, and perhaps I’m just a sucker for the outlier and oddball, but I prefer to think of it as a perfect niche. But we’ll see when it hits the US and Euroland.

—

Now, Uncharted: Golden Abyss. Finished it the other night and had a jolly good time. Nothing mindblowing, outside of enjoying the relative graphical feast Bend have rendered for a launch game. It feels more like the original Uncharted, in so far as having a much greater emphasis on clambering and puzzle-solving than shooting. Snappy controls, great use of the touch screen for simple item interaction and puzzle solving, terrific characters and incredible sound. I cannot stress the sound design enough, not that it wasn’t evident in the console games. Really finely honed acoustic work, particularly in subterranean levels.

Anyway, to cut this short, Golden Abyss is nowhere near a shark jump. It’s probably what many people would have liked the third instalment to have been, although it is very much a quiet little prequel. Small band of characters, smaller set pieces, localised action, but a ripping little yarn given the same care and attention that the big games have. It’s not perfect, but as someone who felt like they got their fill in Uncharted 2, it’s a delight to play.

Also, the ‘boss battles’ in Golden Abyss – no, not against yetis or some supernatural misfires – are conducted as touch-based swiping QTEs, akin to Infinity Blade. Might sound shit, but it’s totally excellent and befits Uncharted far more than chasing some ghost-roiding Serbian war criminal around an explosive sap arena. Or spiking guardian apes not fit for Michael Crichton’s Congo.

Yeah, that’s my little spiel. Looking forward to the Vita in 2012. Should be interesting. Same cannot be personally said for many console games, that much I say.

—

Thanks again for a great squadcast. Keen for the next!

—

EDIT: @beige Just a quick “great to hear Anno” getting its dues. Really enjoying the online interactivity implementation with global voting and such, too. Feels like a purposeful and considered use of online.

The Squadron of Shame Review of 2011: A Big Bowl o’ Podcast

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And we’re back! The Squad takes a look back at the year that was 2011 and determines what the highlights and lowlights were, taking in everything from Xenoblade Chronicles to Modern Warfare 3 along the way.

Music in this episode:
Duel of the Fates — John Williams
YO — Shoji Meguro

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Got any thoughts on 2011? Post ‘em here and tag ‘em “2011 in Review”.

Enjoy the show!

Not to be outdone by @feenwager in sneakin’ some preview for you all regarding the SquadCast, this announcement bodes well for gaming media at large. @angryjedi, you should totally apply for a writing gig there.

SquadCast is about 50% edited right now. Taking a break for lunch, then back to it later this afternoon. Should be up either today or tomorrow.

The Old Republic is brilliant. So there. Even better, they don’t lock you out from playing on other regions’ servers, meaning I can play on American servers for once and, should you feel the need, you can play on European ones, too. This is a Good Thing.

I have a Jedi Knight at level 22, a Jedi Consular on Jeff’s server at 12 (I think) and I briefly tried an Imperial Agent on another friend’s server last night. She (my Agent, not my friend) has LadyHawke’s voice. I think I’m in love.

Any day now, you’ll have a brand new Squadcast to listen to, and you’ll hear Pete & I gush about how cool Star Wars: The Old Republic is. Let me say this: my dude was level 5 at the time of that recording, and is now level 20. Be happy we didn’t do the show today or you’d have never shut me up.

In many ways, this is the game I’ve been waiting for for 20+ years. It’s that good.

@bowlisimo Great idea. Will ponder on mine over the weekend. Currently trying to mix work with a mini-vacation. Blegh.

@angryjedi You continue to be the man.

Morning all! Everyone has sent me their SquadCast files now, so I’ll be editing it tomorrow. I’d start today, but we have a cake to bake and a New Year party to go to. Hopefully the new show will be with us in the first few days of the New Year.

Woo! Squadcast back on the saddle, that is mighty fine holiday news.
Many belated thanks to @rampantbicycle for her incredibly generous squadsanta gifts. I am incredibly excited to get started on them! On top of that I will play them while dipping fruit in a chocolate fountain my crazy uncle got me for christmas. Not just a fondue set … no … thats not good enough. I got a fountain of chocolate.

Did Beige cover Dark Souls? Yeah? Then we’re good.

Did you want a three hour show where we hand out exactly zero awards? Cuz that’s what yer gettin’.

@rocgaude I have no doubts you’ve succeeded there

@unmanneddrone @shingro @feenwager Topic decided: be awesome. We’ve succeeded.

It’s happening right now. Topic: undecided.

@rocgaude Keen as mustard! Did we ever finalise the end of year discussion? Either way, plenty to yarn about upon the deployment of the esteemed ‘cast.

Remember the SquadCast? @angryjedi, @bluesforbuddha, @feenwager, and I are recording one tonight.

Nominations Needed!

We’re planning an end of year SquadCast and we want your input for awards categories. They can be as esoteric or straight-laced as you like. Add your category suggestions (and proposed game nominations) as a comment to this thread (not a separate post) or, if you’d prefer to keep them as a surprise, email them to Pete via pjedavison at gmail dot com.

@feenwager & @unmanneddrone thank you guys for the welcome, I can tell this is a community that I will really enjoy being a part of.

@beige *Raises Hand* I am 100% fine with hearing you talk for 2 hours about the souls games. A couple people playing off of each other would be nice, but I always enjoy your opinion and I just cannot get enough of hearing talk about these games right now so I say go for it =)

@beige I can answer a few of those questions right now actually.

I don’t think I’d seen a significant portion of any Alien movie before first playing a Metroid game, and still appreciated the themes present there. Still ain’t got around to reading Gibson yet but I still appreciated Deus Ex all the same, but probably because the influences I saw in there were from Mamoru Oshii and Masamune Shirow.

That said, I think Aliens lies at the core of most dudebro things in gaming. I don’t know if I’ve linked it here before, but there’s an Escapist article noting how every goddamn sci-fi shooter rips off everything in Aliens except one important aspect: it’s protagonist, even going so far as to promote the themes of juvenile dudebroness that Aliens seems to look down upon.

One place where I do see a lot of distinct film influence though is in the library of Rockstar games. Since GTA III I could actually probably pin specific influences on each game they’ve released, and I think you have too.

GTAIII: Sopranos
Vice City: Scarface, Miami Vice
San Andreas: Boyz N the Hood
Bully: Problem Child (and probably every kids movie made in the 80′s and 90′s)
Read Dead: Unforgiven, etc.
L.A. Noire: L.A. Confidential
Yakuza: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

You wanna know what I ended up drawing references to when I played System Shock 2 for the first time? The Riddle of Steel from the first Conan movie. Think about it. Think about the words of Conan’s father and Thulsa Doom, and then compare that to Shodan and The Many.

Okay, so being WAY late on the last squadcast:

Despite you guys crapping on the worlds in Zelda, those are exactly the games I would point out if asked what my first encounter with a “real” game world was. Particularly Ocarina of Time. Looking back, part of the main thing that even sucked me into that game was how “alive” its presentation was. It was a lot of little things really, like how Link reacted to his world and how it reacted to him. At the very least you can’t deny all Nintendo put into crating the Clock town in Majora’s Mask.

The best current example I can think of though is definitely the Yakuza games. Probably my favorite “urban environment” games. The vastness and openness of GTA is fun, but to me it’s the depth, detail, and character that makes a city immersive to me. The same goes for Rome in Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. Every store and venue in Kamurocho is unique and has its own story (save a couple chain stores), but every blacksmith in Rome was pretty much the same. I really do wish someone would take the “Yakuza” approach to more cities around the world.

The absolute smallest example I can think of for a game world that actually felt interesting to me was Silent Hill 4. You spend most of the game trapped in your apartment, but from it you get to look out at the rest of the complex and learn more and more about the cast of characters who inhabit it. I thought that was a very good (and probably cheap) method for storytelling.

Lastly I’ll just plug in and say that as a Washington DC resident, I felt exactly what you guys mentioned in regards to Fallout 3. You guys would probably be surprised at how accurately the game translates DC. The metros for instance are pretty much dead-on. A lot of the towns in the game are real too (including the suburb where I live). People have looked up the locations of buildings on Google maps in order to complete quests in Fallout 3.

Oh, and the Wiki game @bluesforbudhha played with L.A. Noire, I did that for Assassin’s Creed as well, especially in II. Most of the people you assassinate in the first game are real people who either died or disappeared in or around 1192. At least one was confirmed to have been killed by a hashashin.