Hey, is it too late to get in to the Squad Santa fun?

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So what platform is everyone getting this on? I’m curious to see who I’ll be fighting waves of enemies with on the PC version.

So does anyone else have a Vita? Me and @unmanneddrone need more people for our Wipeout 2048 leader board battle.

So what do you guys think of the new Xbox dashboard? I rather like it.

I do wish cloud saves were a bit more liberal. As it is, you basically have a 512mb memory card in the cloud. I’ve got 800mb in Skyrim saves alone! I can see it as a place to keep save files for games I’m currently playing, them move them off when I finish the game. I just wish it was a bit more iCloud like. Just keep my most recent saves from each game uploaded and not make me worry about storage space or manual management.

I excited to try beacons. I’ve been editing a project all week, so no time for multiplayer gaming, but I’ll certainly be exploring the feature this weekend.

@redswir1 Glad you’re listening! I agree that if RE6 goes more horror and adventure, then the combat won’t be as much as an issue. But they’ve been trying to make a combat game with (what I feel to be) subpar combat.

And if Square wants to charge much extra for their games, watch me (and I presume a lot of other people) not buy them. Good, old capitalism.

I just saw the trailer for the new Devil May Cry developed my Ninja Theory. Is it wrong that this is the most interested I’ve ever been in a DMC game?

I thought of another major problem I have with many Japanese games. Pacing. There’s of course the obvious 30 – 60 minute intros in a jRPG before you even get to your first battle, but it’s deeper than that. Ever notice how the dialog in a japanese game never seems to flow? It’s like it was written and recorded with the assumption that the next line wouldn’t happen until the player pressed a button like the text boxes of old. If characters talk over each other in a Japanese game, I actually get somewhat excited and hopeful.

Then there’s the mini games. Mini games exist in both eastern and western games, but for some reason the Japanese ones just kill the momentum of the game. I remember before No More Heroes came out and I was watching various videos online to see what I thought of it. As soon as I saw the video of the main character awkwardly walking around collecting coconuts in a balls to the walls action game, I knew I wanted nothing to do with it. Putting up posters in Kingdom Hearts 2 is the reason I’ve never been able to go back to that game and finish after losing my save (much to Mike’s dismay). But then you look at the hacking mini games in Mass Effect 2 or Bioshock. For whatever reason, I actually enjoy them. I think it’s because they manage to be quick enough so as not to be tedious.

Also, @sinfony. I have done the whole hacked .exe thing for KotoR off of Steam, and not only did it work perfectly, but it wasn’t too hard nor did I feel particularly devious doing it. There’s a great how to at the Wide Screen Gaming Forum should anyone want to seek it out.

Another great show, guys! If any of you have heard me at all on EBP, you know I stand close to Jeff on the issue of Japanese games.

When Mass Effect 2 tells and entire, epic story with phenomenal gameplay, fantastic characters with actual relationships, and gorgeous graphics in the time that Final Fantasy XIII’s tutorial finishes, there’s a problem. Let’s take this into perspective. The Uncharted and Mass Effect games (that’s two games each) were created before Final Fantasy XIII. How does that happen? It’s not like Square Enix is some tiny little studio. I really believe the “Japanese” way of making games is in for a rude awakening. Clearly, something needs to change about the way things are done over there.

Pete talked about how Japanese games have you in the role of some super expert. From Cloud to Bayonetta, they’re already ass kickers. I like how in Dragon Age I went from a fairly typical son of a noble to the Commander of the Grey Wardens, slayer of the Archdemon. I loved going from a kid in Vault 101 to the savior of the Wasteland. Guy in a jail cell to hero of Tamriel. Even Commander Shepherd goes is technically just a commander. But (s)he gets shit done!

As my final point on the matter, I think I just hate melodrama. It’s why I can’t stand the way Samus has been characterized. As soon as what’s his name in The World Ends With You said “Nobody gets me” as his first words, I groaned. I want my character and the characters I’m with to be likable. Particularly since I’ll be spending anywhere from 30 to 100 hours with them.

Also to answer your question, Lord of the Rings: The Third Age was basically a western developed jRPG. It was FFX with a LotR skin. Actually wasn’t bad.

In other news, Halo: Reach! I spent the day playing the campaign, FFA multiplayer, and creating what I think is a really cool single flag CTF map in Forge World. Expect to hear me ramble about it all on this week’s EBP, but this is truly great stuff! I’ll be playing a lot this week, I’m sure. So look for me if you want to jump into a game.

Well I guess that’s good. Course, I never paid anything. I think id be kinda pissed if I did. I know this probably wasn’t their intention, but it really does kind of feel like this was a way to grab some quick cash.

@zegol @RocGaude Well for me personally, it didn’t hit because I won all of those games.

Here’s another question that I have that I haven’t been able to read about anywhere. Are they DRMing this thing? It seems to me that this will be all over the internet an hour after it’s posted.

I mean, I have to imagine a large percentage of their audience doesn’t have a credit card. I can’t even imagine what my parents’ reaction to high school me asking for $5 a month for a podcast would have been like. Still, I was a savvy enough kid to know how to acquire .mp3s I shouldn’t have had.

@sinfony No, I understand what you’re saying. I was trying to make the same point as you, but maybe I wasn’t clear. It’s like I said, the base content is the same. It’s all just different interpretations.

Right now, perhaps a lot of people do listen to Giant Bombcast just as you say. It’s because you like those guys. But do you $5 a month like them? Perhaps you do, but does every single listener of the show? It’s a really big gamble. I mean, I much prefer a Five Guys burger to a McDonald’s McDouble, but one is $6 and one is $1. Guess which one I tend to eat more often.

It’s certainly a brave new world. I wonder how many other “professional” podcasts will follow in their footsteps. Heck, this may potentially bring “amateur” shows such as the Squadcast and EBP a bigger audience of cheap people. 🙂

I figured I’d say a quick piece about the whole Giant Bombcast thing. As someone who has also been making a free, weekly podcast for three years, believe me when I say I’ve certainly been trying to figure out a way to monetize the format as well. The truth of the matter is, I’m a little fish in a giant ass pond. Then you have the Giant Bomb guys. At best, they are a medium fish in a giant ass pond.

Full disclosure, I’ve never cared for the Giant Bombcast. I’ve given it a few tries, but the whole thing is just too chaotic and off topic for me to get in to. At times, it sounds like there’s 10 people in the room just drunkenly shouting, and since I typically listen to podcasts while driving, it became very hard to focus on.

The stuff they talk about is, as was mentioned by others, available everywhere else on the internet. The reason you listen to a particular podcast is because you enjoy the way that crew discusses said content. While I don’t enjoy Giant Bomb’s format, I can understand why others do. Heck, it Weekend Confirmed wanted money, I’d probably pay it because I love the insights of Garnert, Brian, and Jeff. But there’s still an inherent danger to the subscription model.

The way I see it breaking down, you will gain the support of your most fervent listeners. At best, that may be half of your listeners. Everyone else will just move elsewhere to other free podcasts. Weekend Confirmed, Mobcast, *cough* Exploding Barrel *cough* all offer similar content and are free. Now here comes the real problem. How do you grow your now fractioned user base? You may get some word of mouth, but in general, why would someone looking to listen to a gaming podcast subscribe to yours when there are hundreds of other shows featuring similar content for free?

Personally, I think the early Penny Arcade model is the way to go. Ask for donations, offer unique little pieces of bonus content that is entirely unique to you for those donors, continue with ads, and do merchandising. I haven’t had the time lately to go full tilt with it, but I’ve certainly looked into getting EBP mugs and shirts at CafePress, and there’s really nothing to it. With any luck, you’ll be able to build enough of a base from ads and merchandise that donations won’t even be necessary. Though I don’t think it will ever be feasible to create a gaming convention around a podcast. Maybe a charity.

Another great show, guys! The while Cheap Fu thing is a great topic, because I’m convinced it’s going to save this industry.

Basically, the gaming industry has, in many cases, become bloated. Games’ budgets exceed many Hollywood films. Yet they have a smaller audience and a much higher price point of entry. While it’s fine for big devs / pubs such as Activision, EA, Epic, etc. to drop that kind of money, it leaves smaller studios in a really rough place. In the film world, a movie like Little Miss Sunshine is relatively inexpensive to make. The gaming equivalent, where everything would look “real” still needs to compete graphically and gameplay wise with something like Call of Duty for it to garner any attention. Then good luck selling what is perceived as a subpar title for the same $60.

The explosion of $15 downloadable titles has given a great opportunity to smaller devs and independents. You asked if we should weep for Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert. I think this is the greatest thing to happen to them. They are fonts of creativity, and it has sadly been proven that the mass market is not willing to drop $60 on the promise of their innovation. So now they can invest less money to put out a shorter game still full of whatever awesome/crazy stuff they can come up with and survive as a business. It sure as hell beats the alternative of them leaving the industry altogether.

Just two years ago, Monday Night Combat would have never happened. Ditto for Braid. Flower? Forget it. Some of my favorite games have been made possible thanks to this new business model.

In truth, I think we have Portal to thank for this. While it wasn’t a $15 digital release (though it did eventually become one), Portal showed mass gaming audiences that it was OK for a game to be a tight, well put together, interesting, and experimental game that only took a few hours to play. It was still a good game. That is the mold that many of the Cheap Fu titles follow.

@unmanneddrone I’m pretty sure there’s a demo for Pure out there. The Split/Second guys are the one who made Pure, actually.

Oh, and can I get an amen for Monday Night Combat?! @tolkoto and I gave the trial a shot the other night and I bought it immediately. I’d somehow missed the fact that the game is basically TF2 + tower defense + great humor. I also like that there are both co-op and competitive modes.

PS, how many of you actually play Borderlands on the PC? I have it on 360, but I think I can actually get more than $10 trade in on it at Gamestop when I reserve the WoW Cataclysm CE tomorrow. Just trying to figure out if it’s worth the while. (Also, I don’t have any DLC, so no worries about losing that)

Woo!!! Squadcast get!

In other news, I made a quick post about this on twitter, but I didn’t have enough room to rant properly. After seeing Pete playing Guild Wars, I decided to give the game a shot again. Apparently, my account was hacked by gold sellers some time ago. As a result, my account is locked down. They want the address I registered when I bought the game and all three CD keys.

Well A.) God know where all those CD keys are. I haven’t seen these boxes in years. Which brings me to B.) Since I bought these games, I’ve lived in 6 different places. I have no idea what address I registered. I’m hoping they give me my account back, cause, you know, that’d be nice and all…

Super stoked for the show, guys! It’ll be good to get more podcast back into my Google Listener feed too.

Also, my latest Bitmob article got promoted. It’s about how one might fix storytelling in games. I’d appreciate a Digg. http://digg.com/d31Z4Os

@Roc Just get Dragon Age and Steam and maybe they’ll eventually make it Steam play.

@tolkoto Unfortunately, I have to keep this avatar. The ALT Project also uses WordPress for its blog, and I need to have a “real” avatar for that.

Hey, look! It’s me! And I’m not in Canada. We just recorded tonight’s EBP and Mike says I should post here more, which I fully intend to do now that I’m back. But for now, I’m going to bed.

Also, Starcraft 2 rocks my socks.

@Pete Hey, I read your MI2: SE preview. They actually have confirmed Gilbert, Grossman, and Schafer. http://www.videogamer.com/videos/monkey_island_2_special_edition_lechucks_revenge_commentary_preview_feature.html

@feenwager Check out yesterday’s EBP and the one that I’ll be putting up in an hour or so. 🙂

@sinfony There’s always a few more surprises to be had as the show progresses.

Gotta run to a 2 o’clock meeting hopefully I won’t miss to much of the Sony conference.

@rocgaude What exactly did you not like?

Nintendo busting out the booth babes?

Please put demo units in gamestops or something.

It prints money! Er… Coins.

Star Fox on 3DS confirmed?

I wonder if those 3d cameras can shoot video?

@captcarnage Doubt it. My guess is April 2011.

Kingdom Hearts on 3DS. I hope Mike is still alive.

The vagueness of content leads me to believe we’ll be waiting a while for 3DS.

Viral spreading of dlc. Interesting.

Fuck yes. nintendo is easily winning so far. Sony is going to have their work cut out for them.

Everyone happy now?

It’s a friggin 3d camera!? Wow.

@rocgaude What are you talking about? They’re hitting it out of the park. Guys, back me up.

Adjustable effect. I like that.

Here’s comes Iwata to kill the momentum.

Here we go. Let’s see what the 3DS has to offer.

Silhouettes are the new lens flare.

Yes! It’s a fall title! Huzzah!

Oh. My. God. That looks incredible!

Holy crap!

Yeah he does. Have you seen how pissed he looks on all his box art?

The animation of Mickey is great. Glad they got squash and stretch right.

Show the fucking footage!!!!!

Epic Mickey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!