In-Game Chat

We’re scantily clad at the following link.

The first of our opinions on Arkham City are smeared over the bulk of this episode.  There’s some Dark Souls to be had, some nonsense about pandas, and John Carmack figures into the conversation somehow.  But our thoughts are with the Dark Knight just now.  It’s as good a time as any of us has had this year, but there’s a sense that it won’t satisfy every taste once we’ve all played our fill.  We, the hosts, will be of roughly the same mind, I imagine, but there are some sick people in this world, and I’ve heard rumors they liked the first game a bit more.  I can only hope they’re marginalized as effectively as I was regarding Max Payne, and that the inevitable third entry can follow the logical progression.

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We’re serving more than one master at the following link.

I’d should have accepted the virtue of hard games by now, but I’m still not sure of myself one way or the other.  Some of us have spent so much of our lives avoiding the painfully difficult that it seems unlikely we’d ever subject ourselves to it willingly.  Arjay makes a good case, of course, but it’s as dispassionate as ever, and I think it would be unfair of us to suggest that some of what we already love would be considered quite hard by another player.  The question always seems to be how someone can find the difficulty itself a prominent feature, or how an otherwise brilliant game could be ruined without it.  I’m suspicious of these claims, and I don’t expect to be convinced any time soon.

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We make our own short cuts at the following link.

So, Human Revolution has those four endings that are crap – or maybe not so crap if one of your hobbies is to go on and on about what things mean when they’re in a video game.  There’s also that bit that leads up to the endings.  We feel pretty strongly about that as well.  And the girl.  Really, who thought that was the best way to handle things?  All of this is in the show, but there are no spoiler warnings, and it isn’t handled in one stretch as it should be, so you’re on your own for avoiding what you may not want to know.

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We’re mostly non-violent at the following link.

So, Deus Ex, right?  I know, we feel pretty much the same way.  Setting aside over ten years of bias and expectation can be difficult, but Human Revolution has a lot to offer for those who bother to try.  It may well be the best version of DX the world is capable of delivering anymore, which is a sadness.  But there’s plenty here to point the way toward what the future of gaming should have been.  We’ve got two hours of other unfinished opinions in this episode, and likely another several to go before we’ve had our fill.  With any luck, we won’t have to wait so long for something else so worthy of our time and attention.

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We speak no evil at the following link.

Well, that’s not really true, is it?  But it’s old evil in any case.  Ancient; nearly a month old.  And what good are month-old opinions of video games without an archaeologist around to provide context?  You could point and laugh, I suppose.  You could mock our primitive belief that EA might not have any footage of Battlefield 3 worth showing.  Maybe you’ll raise an eyebrow at our worship of the prophet Deus Ex, with a future-man’s full knowledge that he’d bring boss fights when he returned.  And how about all those games we swore we’d finish?  “How’d that turn out?”, you’ll ask.  About as well as you’d expect from a bunch of cavemen, honestly.

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We’re trying to cushion the blow at the following link.

Which blow, we’re not exactly sure.  Maybe it’s the awful truth about Catherine, though it might be the awful truth about beer.  It might also be the inevitable, annual dread of the fourth-quarter.  Maybe it’s Origin.  Whatever it is, we won’t be held responsible for any misunderstandings, mispronunciations, overdrafts or backlashes.  We’ve got guilt enough as it is.

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It’s a knock-down, drag-out at the following link.

We’re offering a sleepy recollection of the Steam sale this week, and a more animated guess at just what kind of bug is up EA’s back end.  EA’s public spat with Steam is entirely one-sided, but that doesn’t prevent us all knowing the likely truths.  Obvious as those truths may be, they aren’t officially obvious just yet, so we’re bound by duty and tradition to suggest outrageous alternatives.

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We’ve got an ointment for that at the following link.

There’s a lot less content in this episode than what we started with, so you’re not imagining any clumsy edits, abrupt changes of topic or a punchline that never seems to materialize.  We left it all on the live stream, apparently.  You won’t mind, of course, since those conversations only dealt with our hatred of children, freedom, hard work, clean living, the American south, tower defense, the rest of America, and movies.

We stick to what we know. As you can see, this episode is quite short.

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We’re off the deep end at the following link.

There’s no reason to believe our predictions for subscription-based expos will come to pass, or that our pleas for even-footing in games journalism and transparency from games publishers won’t fall on deaf ears.  Which is all just fine, so long as a top-shelf developer is somewhere toiling away at the SilverHawks property.

We spent more time talking about comics than we really should have.  Not that they aren’t a fine subject, and there’s certainly a lot of crossover, but only one or two of us know what the hell we’re talking about, and the rest of us are either completely ignorant, talk too much, or both.

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We’re in for a pound at the following link.

All we’ve managed this weekend is a survey of our E3 predictions and our hearts deepest desires.  We know better, but can’t help burning our share of prayer paper in the hopes of seeing some proper, cheer-worthy games.  We know that suffering through adverts for Kinect integration or social networking is our due, but would it kill the industry to slake our lust for news and announcements in a more traditional way?  Likely it would.

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Time flies at the following link.

Yes, it’s been a minute or two since we’ve posted an episode, and there’s no doubt that’s my fault.  It’s also true that this episode isn’t entirely the one we’d like to have delivered.  There was no hope of retrieving or recreating the four hours of talkabout we’d laid down already, so a backward glance is all you’re going to get.  In an effort to move forward, however, we’ve provided a confusion of format changes, a new venue, and dubious audio quality.

We imagine that recording directly from Scott’s home studio will result in several casual changes, not the least of which is his ability to lounge in pyjamas.  But we aim to make improvements overall; to bring some of our toys into the process with us, and to draw you into the room as well.  And post more shows.  That, too.

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Violence solves everything at the following link.

We have an exceptionally long episode on offer today, but it’s one we think well worth our efforts.  The conversation is a little out-of-date, there being a lot of “I wonder blah blah blah about Portal 2” sorts of talk which makes little sense in a “What did you think about Portal 2?” kind of world.  There’s no griping about ARGs or countdowns to countdowns, either.  Much of last week’s kerfuffle was yet unknown.  We’ll approach it all in time, though.  Mere hours, in fact.  I hope I can remember how angry I was supposed to have been.

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Which seat can we take at the following link?

Jeremy’s elsewhere tonight, but Matt’s come back again, and we’ve welcomed him in the fashion to which he’s become accustomed.  In the moments we aren’t giving him unearned shit, we make our way through the last three weeks of happenings.  Games having been played, there’s a lot we feel the need to share.  We’re probably wrong about some of it.

I’d also like to save you the time wondering by telling you straight away there’s no April Fool’s goings-on.  We aren’t the sort who plan that far ahead.

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Tips are appreciated at the following link.

In lieu of having played much of anything, we’ve chosen to act like shits about a few of the trailers making the rounds.  We can’t abide anyone being happy about something that makes so little sense to us, and there’s not much room for hope in a world that doesn’t trust us to open our own doors, so things are a little downbeat until the drinks break.  If you look just to the left of our pointless negativity, though, you can make out some faint praise for an actual game or two, which could well be in the company of some weak optimism.

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