Category: Episodes

We’ve been kept in the dark at the following link.

It would be hard for us to hide or deny our love of up-to-the-minute facts about the state of the games business or the progress of our most anticipated titles, but a reveal wouldn’t amount to much without the anticipation.  For that to work, publishers have to cultivate their lies and develop their policies in secret, and we try to remember that some degree of misdirection is fair.  But there’s a point beyond which every word they utter becomes suspect, and no two of us seems to agree on where that line should be placed.  We’ve been told by what passes for games journalism that gamers seem incapable of rising above their own entitlement – to product, price, and content – but it seems that where information is concerned, many of them have forgotten to pick the plank out of their own eye first.

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We’re head over heels at the following link.

While it’s nice to be rewarded for skepticism with the sure knowledge that you dodged a bullet or avoided an unwise purchase, it’s a far better thing to be pleasantly surprised by something you hadn’t been hoping for at all.  In this case, having never strapped one of the contraptions to my own head, I’ve been doubtful of the Oculus Rift’s capabilities and I’ve harrumphed about it often.  But the consistent goodwill toward the Rift has it creeping up my interest meter, and now, with the joining of John Carmack’s positronic cyborg brain to the Oculus imaginarium, I have no choice but to be excited for whatever the hell it is that thing will do.  No choice at all.

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We’re exploring the overworld at the following link.

It’s not uncommon for the developer of a newly announced MMOG to promise players the moon and stars and to insist they’ll offer a revolutionary way of getting there.  What’s strange to me is to see them (apparently) abandon the safest choices made by their peers, and to borrow so heavily from the most successful games in nearly every other genre and category.  If Everquest Next can deliver on even a portion of what they’ve promised and alluded to, then it will be well worth our time to investigate everything it has to offer.  But the odds are against them – against all of us, really – and I’m beginning to doubt the moon and stars exist at all.

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We’re taking the high road at the following link.

I can’t say for sure what’s gone wrong lately with people whose job it is to craft, promote, and celebrate video games.  I understand that games are literally serious business, and in a certain light might well be confused with serious art, but the lengths to which heads have gone up asses is beyond my ability to understand.  I know how easily a cause or an argument can grow to fill your entire field of view, but I don’t know how a person can stand to let what should be a cherished pastime become a bone of such incredible contention.  There are a lot of folks (myself included, sometimes) who should lighten up, maybe, and just enjoy some games.

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We’re dropping quarters in the slots at the following link.

It’s honestly worth having Arjay look at me like I’m speaking gibberish if it means he’s taking the time to put himself on record about one thing or another.  Or, as is the case in this episode, if he’s making the effort to explain something to me like the five-year-old I appear to be.  Here I’m talking about fighting games, the culture surrounding them, and the competitive scene that motivates the top-level players.  That fighting games exist, and that they support a competitive scene is literally the sum of my knowledge about them, as if they were a rumor, so rest assured that my questions about the EVO tournament are genuine and that my attitude isn’t affected.  I’m really this clueless and stupid.

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We’re of two minds at the following link.

I swear sometimes I can hear the internet rolling its eyes when I go on, at incredible length, about some MMOG or another.  I’m perfectly aware of how it sounds when I’m having my way, and I can promise you that even my co-hosts drift off in search of any other thing in the entire world they can be thinking about when I do.  But there’s not much they can do to stop me running my mouth, so I’m damn well going to spend a half-hour this week on Final Fantasy 14, and many more half-hours in the future, I’m sure.

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Our heads are up for hunting at the following link.

Whether he’s jumped out of the pan and into the fire or made like a rat from a sinking ship, Don Mattrick’s emergency teleport from Microsoft to Zynga is sure to make him a profit and allow him continued use of his unnaturally thick skin.  This is a perfectly rational decision for a man of business, of course, and there are a great many reasons to absolve Mattrick of the blame that’s been heaped upon him in the weeks since the XBO’s reveal.  But every gust in the recent shitstorm has only served to remind us of the fact that this is all just business, run by men who wield billions and are payed in millions.  Yes, we’re well aware this is how the world is run and there’s (supposedly) nothing wrong with that.  But then why are our inner children so far out of sorts?  This was supposed to be fun and games.

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We’re whistling for the wind at the following link.

For the first time in the longest we’re actually motivated by the summer doldrums.  We’re generally impatient people and we’d love to have the new consoles and many new games in hand, but we’re also anxious to clear this extraordinary backlog of games from our ledger.  We won’t get it done of course, but we’ll labor under the illusion that we will, and we’ll happily add to the list during every sale and discount the summer cares to offer.  Two steps forward and two steps back, I suppose.

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We’re setting course for the status quo at the following link.

We’re not sure if a reversal of of its policy will lead to a reversal of fortunes, but Microsoft has taken unprecedented action in response to overwhelming negative sentiment by removing the XBox One’s DRM.  This solves one very important issue with the new system, but leaves us wondering if maybe we’ve only seen the first of many adjustments to come between now and the release of the console this fall.

This should have been our chance to talk in detail to one another about The Last of Us, but out of respect to those hosts who couldn’t attend this show and the many listeners who haven’t quite finished the game, we’re leaving spoilers out of the conversation for the time being.  We made a deliberate exercise of talking at length without talking in depth, and it’s a testament to the quality of the game that there was still so much to say.

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My heart is in the Gold Saucer at the following link.

There’s simply no ignoring Microsoft at the moment; the leanest piece of news, the merest fraction of information about their designs on the future of games demands our full attention.  Every pound and ounce of us screams to leave the story be for just a few more days so that history can be a judge and we can pretend to have been wise and judicious in a time of boiling rage and bombast and vile, stinking stupidity.  But we’ve got designs of our own, and we have our own thoughts to share, and we’re wrong so often we can’t help but keep clawing away in an effort to be right.

Whatever is said on the many stages of E3 this coming week, you can be sure that our beloved hobby will have suffered its most painful growth spurt, and that the easy, effortless fun of the past is well and truly gone.  There’s plenty of fun left to us, make no mistake, and it may well be the best we’ve ever had, but we’re going to pay for it, and we’ll pay in bitter cash.  I remember a time when I wished desperately that my hobby would grow up; that it would put on big-boy pants and engage the world with an adult’s sensibilities.  Whichever god or djinn or monkey’s paw happened to be listening in clearly misunderstood what I was after.

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A high tide lifts all boats at the following link.

Much has been said, by this show and others, about the supposed schemes and restrictions we’ll face with the new consoles when they arrive later this year.  There’s a lot of (forgivable) wailing and gnashing of teeth when you consider the worst of all possible outcomes, and what effect it’s likely to have on our darling hobby.  But there are reasons to be optimistic.  There are reasons to believe our pastime will be improved in many, if not most, respects, and that this will be true for all platforms, if not all players.  It’s certainly best to remain skeptical as all hell right now, but the bad dream has hardly come true, and good news is still a possibility.

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We’ve got a bridge to sell you at the following link.

Despite a solid three hours of gesticulation, exasperation, raised voices and facepalms, we really don’t know what to make of Microsoft’s announcement of the new Xbox.  There are optimistic voices in the press, in the gaming community and inside our own skulls suggesting we wait until E3 to pass judgement, but there’s little chance we’ll be rewarded for our patience and understanding.  Microsoft hasn’t done themselves any favors and I don’t think their customers should either.  We’ll watch and we’ll wait and we’ll give them a chance to explain, but we’ll be carrying a torch for Sony while we do.

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We’re in the swing of things at the following link.

Our first segment, as usual, is brought to you by Electronic Arts and their very tarnished image, which they’ve managed this week to rub off onto Nintendo.  Then we spend a short stretch with a spoiler-free, qualitative discussion of Metro: Last Light.  In the second hour we talk with Jamie Fristrom of Happion Labs about his game, Energy Hook.

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We’re going over our buyout contract with Disney at the following link.

It’s the final time that you’ll be hearing us pre-taped as we recorded the show about six hours earlier. Next week sees us back live on the air again and, hopefully, with you in the chat room making sure we have our facts straight. In the meantime, we still cover some of the rumors concerning Microsoft’s next console, talk about what it means for EA to make games for the Star Wars franchise while Disney lords over their shoulders, and we try as best we can to tell you just what is happening with this whole Silicon Knights & Precursor Games situation.

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