This is the premier episode of a new podcast series I will be doing with my friends Sam, Chris, and Garrett. We basically discuss what we have been doing in our spare time. Fortunately for you, this typically results in long conversations on all things geeky.
Fair warning though, this thing is a good 2.5 hours long. Hopefully, you have a long commute to work in which to listen to this.
0:00:00 Introductions
We spent this time talking about the overuse of Hitler, Crispy Creme, and pot in O-High-O. I would say I'm sorry for this, but that'd be a big lie.
0:02:47 I finished Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall,
I just wrote an article on Shadowrun Returns that came out today, so there's no point in doing into much further detail about it. Still, I would easily recommend that game. The reason Sam knew what I was going to say about it was that it was our second attempt at recording this podcast.
0:11:19 I finished The Walking Dead: Season 2: Episode 4
I honestly don't have too much more to say about Season 2. I just wish I had the impression that it was going somewhere. Between that and The Wolf Among Us, TWAU blew this season out of the water. I'd be interested in comparing the sales of both games, because I wonder if they reviews for The Wolf Among Us have been able to give it comparable sales to the hype coming off of the first season of The Walking Dead.
We also talk briefly about post-apocalypse logistics and how much we loved the first season of Telltale's The Walking Dead.
Also, here's a link to the imdb of the show that Sam and Chris were talking about during this segment.
0:24:45 DESTINY BURN!
0:25:30 I have been playing Kingdom Hearts 1.5: Final Mix
My fanboy-ism aside, Kingdom Hearts 1 aged very well. One thing I forgot to mention is that many of the bosses were recolored in the Final Mix. Purists would probably be upset, but I thought the recolors really added something to the boss designs.
I do want to add that not adding voices to the new scenes was both really cheap and REALLY lazy on the part of Square-Enix.
0:30:45 We take a brief detour to discuss Extended Play, G4, and Adam Sessler
I do miss that show, but after hearing all of Adam Sessler's stories of his work on G4, I'm glad that stopped. I don't need people to go through misery to produce my entertainment. That show had some ups and downs, but it was fun to watch. Again, best of luck to him and the former G4 guys in their current/future endeavors.
Then we go into a few of his "controversies." Specifically the ones regarding God of War: Ascension.
0:38:10 I started watching Season 1 of The X-Files.
I know that I'm more than a bit behind when it comes to this, but that's exactly why the internet exists!
And I take this chance to make a stupid pun. I REGRET NOTHING!
The reason I grow quiet in this segment is because the guys start talking about episodes I haven't seen yet.
I also completely forgot The X-Files had a video game at some point.
0:49:00 MY TURN IS FINALLY OVER!
0:49:34 Garrett bought Guild Wars 2.
And we skip over that without talking a whole lot about Guild Wars.
0:50:15 Garrett played the Destiny Beta (and it's fuckin' boring).
I agree with Garrett that the whole Borderlands-esque semi-MMO elements to the game really don't add a whole lot. As another who has played the Beta, I found it immensely boring.
I should note that all the systems are polished and competently designed. The issue comes from the complete lack of variation. This COULD be reasonably explained by the fact that it's in Beta. However, if that's the case, then why release it to the public in that state. After all, this Beta is only to function as a stress test. The core design should be close to finalized by now.
And the plot, from what I have seen, is just too mystical for me to really get into. I can't help but compare it to Kingdom Hearts and Star Wars in its simplicity.
Sam makes a good point here. At least in Borderlands, although the core mechanic is shooting, each character feels unique thanks to their power set and distinctive silhouette. Even if different classes in Destiny are different, they look the same. Since I didn't play the other 2 classes, I can't be 100% sure, but it feels like they aren't different.
1:25:40 Chris's turn begins, and he played Shovel Knight
Chris's comments about Shovel Knight remind me of Egoraptor's sequelitis videos. Specifically, this one where he makes fun of the industry's tendency to over-tutorialize. Considering that we mention Game Grumps in this segment, there's some irony there.
I actually love it when developers make place those kinds of Easter Eggs in their products. It's a nice little touch.
1:33:25 I detour to talk about Kingdom Hearts again.
To be clear, the Proud Mode from the original Kingdom Hearts is not present in Final Mix. It is completely replaced with Final Mix: Proud. Now that I'm in the late stages of the game, and have access to a lot more skills, this is less of a factor than it was in the early game.
Also, I should learn to never worry about trophies. I don't know what I was thinking. X_X
Chris is being the smart one here.
1:36:45 Chris plays Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time.
The "uncompressed audio" joke is a reference to Titanfall. That game's install on PC is 50 GB because all the game's audio (for all languages) is uncompressed.
As for Sly Cooper: TiT, the game is actually a really good homage to the original trilogy. I'm glad it was released, even if I felt it was a bit easy.
The Spyro and Jak & Daxter concept art in their respective links.
1:43:45 Chris talks a bit about playing Tribes: Ascend.
I don't have much to add here at all.
1:48:50 Chris discusses his experiences in Titanfall and we go into AI voices.
1:51:55 Chris detours to new information regarding Avengers 2.
And I learn new things about the Marvel Universe.
1:56:00 Continuing with our movie discussion, we all start to talk about how sick we are of grimdark.
I stand behind my theory that darkness in media is partially a reflection of the way we think our world is worse than it actually is. It's actually pretty sad to think about. Hopefully, we can get some more positive movie messages out there to help counteract all this grimdark.
I should also remember to tell Chris to stop looking at the Escapist forums. No good can possibly come from that.
2:03:30 Sam played Counter Strike: Global Offensive
2:06:55 Sam purchased Gods Will Be Watching
2:08:25 Sam talks about how he lost all of his computer files by install Windows 7.
And the rest of us wonder why he never performed a backup.
This also happens to be how we lost the first of three recordings of this episode. This show was slated to start last week, but we lost the recording.
Like I said in the podcast, losing that many saves and that much progress might cause me to cry and scream. Just one 100% complete save put me in a mad tirade back in middle school. That, might make me stop gaming for a few weeks.
2:23:05 We briefly return to comics to talk about Spawn, Spidey, Cyclops, and other bizarre crap.
To talk a bit about Image Comics. The summery is that Image Comics was originally founded as a safe haven for artists to keep their IP. Then, Todd McFarlene basically destroyed that haven later on.
2:26:30 We end the podcast.
You can find my Shadowrun Returns article here and my game length article here.
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