#121: Sekiro: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Deflect

As a fan of From Software's most recent works, from Demon's Souls to Dark Souls 3, I was honor-bound to play Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice the moment it was released. Going in, I felt prepared for another exciting adventure in an environment that would do everything it could to kill me. With how easily I breezed through the third Dark Souls game, I thought that there was nothing From could do to surprise or intimidate me. They must be running out of tricks, so I would be wise to whatever they threw my way. Many of my friends thought the same way, to the game's, the developer's, and our own collective disservice.

#107: Dark Souls 3: The Absence of Hostility and Loneliness

I have written about my experiences playing From Software's “Soulsborne” games a couple of times on this blog. For that reason, I can distinctly recall my time in these games, which colored my expectations going into Dark Souls 3. To my surprise, and somewhat to my disappointment, the game didn't feel the way I expected it to. Though it certainly is a shining example of what could be described as a Souls game, Dark Souls 3 felt different than its predecessors. 

As I explored the desolate lands of Boletaria and Lordran, there was a palpable sense of loneliness to the proceedings. It was as if I was cold and alone against a world out to kill me, with its bands of diverse and terrifying opponents setting their differences aside in a concerted effort to block my path and take my life. Despite in many ways going against those same odds, I never had that feeling of isolation and hostility in Dark Souls 3. Rather than a world against me, it felt as if every area was merely a stage for I and my fellow players.

Much of that simply stems from the fact that there are many more players in Dark Souls 3 than there were in previous Souls games I had played. My first runs of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls were both in the summer of 2015. By then, the games were 6 and 4 years old respectively. There were certainly stragglers like myself who were still engaged with them, but by and large most had already moved on to greener pastures. And even if people were playing these games, my efforts to work with them were minimal. In Demon's Souls, I spent almost the entire game in Soul form, preventing me from summoning phantoms to aid me. Likewise, I can count the number of bosses I defeated with other players on a single hand. My experiences in both games are mostly mine and mine alone. When push came to shove, I could only rely on myself to get out of a hairy situation.

I can't say the same thing when I look back on the total sum of my Dark Souls 3 experiences. Strangely, I was excited to, for once, be a part of the community as the game comes out, exploring it together with everyone. In a way, this ended up being counter to what I most enjoyed in its older siblings. Talking with my Twitter friends, being guided to secrets by random strangers, aiding other people and being aided in turn, these were all wonderful experiences in their own right. However, it meant that my journey was less a result of my own effort and accomplishments, and more the gestalt of all of those who joined me on my path. Random strangers who I will never know, and who will never know me, were all working together to achieve a common goal. Even when I was invaded/invading, it felt like a respectable contest between peers and less an attempt of one person to sabotage another. I could use many adjectives to describe my adventure, but “lonely” is not one of them.

The NPCs also seemed a lot more welcoming in Dark Souls 3 than they have been in the past. My runs of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are marked by a sense that there weren’t many people in the world that would even think to assist me. Outside of the Nexus, I remember that non-hostile NPCs were scarce. It was at least 10 hours before I brought my first new NPC back to the Nexus with me. Until then, the ones I had encountered had either perished unceremoniously (sorry Ostrava), or actively screwed me over (which is why, to this day, I murder Patches every chance I get). Just finding a truly friendly face was a rare treat. The same can be said of Dark Souls. While there are certainly a few kind folks who inhabit the Firelink Shrine, most of them are battered and broken when you find them. And by the time I finished my journey, the most friendly of the lot, like Siegmeyer and Solarie, had met with terrible fates.

By contrast, in my first 10 hours of Dark Souls 3, I encountered a Robin Hood-esque thief, a young woman who knows miracles and her protector, an old pyromancer, a Darkmoon blade from the Sunless Realms, and Siegmeyer's more capable descendant. All of these people had offered their aid to me in some form, either as a vendor or a companion. Where friendly faces were rare before, they were quite common place now. I did not have to look far to find someone with a vested interest in my success. Far from the isolation I once felt, Dark Souls 3 provided an almost constant comfort by offering me my choice of assistants and allies.

Even though the abundance of other players and NPCs are large contributors to why I have lost that adventurous, yet isolating spirit of the previous games, there is another reason. At this point, I have played so many Souls games, and particularly so many Dark Souls games, that the mechanics and world are largely ingrained into my mind. When I was a new player braving the perils of Boletaria, and later Lordran, I often fell for the tricks and traps laid about. I would die to ambushes than I should have seen coming in hindsight. I spent many deaths learning each enemies attack patterns and figuring out the weaknesses therein. I crashed through broken boards and into traps that would be noted and avoided in the future. The designs of From Software were alien to me. Learning them was half of the battle, and half the fun.

Unfortunately, there's only so far the Soulsian “fair” ambushes can go before they reach the territory of just spawning in mooks in lieu of hiding them in creative ways. That's not necessarily From Software's fault, because it is infinitely easier for players to figure out their tendencies than it is for them to think of new ways to surprise those same players. But it does mean that I have gotten much better at predicting when an ambush is likely to happen than I used to be.

I don't remember ever being truly caught off guard while exploring the shattered remains of Lothric and the lands surrounding it. At the same time, I have a distinct memory of an archway in Irithyll of the Boreal Valley. I had not seen nor heard any enemies in the room on the other side, but I suspected that something was “off”. Looking down and to my left, I saw a ledge that I could easily reach by dropping down. Going into the hallway through the opening on this ledge, I climbed a ladder that lead me to the other side of the room beyond the archway, bypassing a group of enemies waiting to ambush me. By just following a slight “off” feeling, I had anticipated and subverted a snare that I would have easily fallen for before. At the time, I felt smart for having trusted my instincts. In hindsight, all I really did was just fall back on knowledge I had gained from 4 previous games' worth of experience. Not only wasn't I surprised by the enemies’ tricks, I couldn't be, because I had already fallen for them before.

Instead of making me believe I was a single man out against a world which wants nothing more than me to fail, Dark Souls 3 felt like reuniting with an old friend I hadn't seen in awhile. There's nothing inherently wrong with that quiet nostalgia. But the dreadful anxiety I experienced the first time, as I explored the worlds of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, is a large part of why I fell in love with the franchise. As disappointing as it is, I'm not sure that one could ever adequately capture that atmosphere that drew me in when I first started Soulsborne. Though I want so badly to feel that isolation, that growing sense of isolation and excitement. I just don't believe it's possible given how large an influence Soulsborne has become. It's hard to feel alone and afraid when in the comfort of your home, surrounded by the old and familiar. These games have become as much a home to me as the house I live in, and that's exactly what I don't want them to be.

#97: Game Invaders: Dark Souls vs. Watch_Dogs

As many of you know, I have been working on a Let's Play series with my friend, Sam Callahan. Together, we have been trudging through Watch_Dogs. One of the more heavily advertised features in Watch_Dogs was the ability for players to invade the game of another in order to sabotage them. Fans of the Dark Souls games might recognize this feature, since it also uses player invasion as a game mechanic. Having played both Watch_Dogs and Dark Souls, I realized that I was extremely annoyed by the invasions in Watch_Dogs. On the other hand, that same general idea worked for me in Dark Souls, adding to the game. This is when I began to ponder why this might be the case.

One of the fundamental reasons why player invasions irritated me in Watch_Dogs was that they were almost divorced from the rest of the game. As a player wanders about the city of Chicago, outside of a mission or side-activity, another player may choose to enter their game at any time. Until the outsider is either dealt with or succeeds in their mission to hack the host player, the host is unable to continue the main story or do any side-quests. Even if the host dies while being invaded, the event continues uninterrupted and the invader is able to continue with their objective. In other words, to someone who is looking to complete the game's story and/or side missions, an invasion is just a needless distraction, rather than a core part of the game. They have to put their game on hold in order to deal with this new problem. Sam and I encountered this ourselves a few times in our Let's Play. Though we eventually remember that we could turn off player invasions, that further speaks to how separate they are from everything else. With invasions turned off, the game is improved because players can get to the rest of the content without wasting time killing an invader.

This is in stark contrast to Dark Souls, where the invasions are more nicely integrated into the whole experience. Normally, players won't be in danger of invasions. However, in order to invite other people to join their game and help them take down many of the game's bosses, they also have to spend a Humanity point and open themselves up to invasions in exchange. Invasions aren't so much a dedicated feature as much as they are a necessary drawback in order to balance out the act of asking for help. Even if the player is offline, there are NPCs in the world that can take the place of both co-op companions and invaders. In other words, this feature is so core to the game's fundamental design that From Software saw fit to include an NPC equivalent for those who, for whatever reason, cannot or will not play online. Opening oneself up to the aid of others will in turn open up the possibility that others will attack.

The difference between allowing oneself to be invaded in Dark Souls and the incidental invasion in Watch_Dogs is a very important one. Whenever I was invaded in Watch_Dogs, it was almost always at an inopportune time. Often, I would be about to accept a story mission, when the game informed me that someone had stepped into my play session, locking me out of the mission. It was an irritation that I had no interest in and gained nothing from. While an invasion in Dark Souls can be inconvenient, players must make a deliberate choice to spend Humanity and make them possible. This opting-in subtly prepares the player for the potential threat, which means they aren't surprised if and when it happens. In Watch_Dogs, player invasions are always surprising because they can happen at anytime. As a result, they will always mess up the player's plan and cause undue irritation.

Not only are the invasions in Watch_Dogs separate from the other gameplay elements, but they are also removed from the normal character progression. As players complete missions in Watch_Dogs, they acquire skill points which can be spent on skills in the various categories, like Hacking, Driving, and Combat. There is also another category called "Notoriety". Unlike the other skill trees, players can't use skill points to advance it. Instead, they accumulate "Notoriety" through strong performances in the various online multiplayer activities, including the invasions. Out of the 6 available skills in this tree, only two could be considered useful to players who don't play with others. The other 4 skills only affect elements of the online component, by raising the rewards or making it easier to detect an invading player. To put it plainly, almost nothing the player unlocks in the online mode affects them in the main story.

Dark Souls works differently. In order to gain Humanity points, players can enter another's game and help them defeat an area boss. Even if they fail in the attempt, they can still keep the Souls that they earned while in working with the host. Alternatively, the enter invade another player's game, gaining Humanity and souls by killing the host. Since they do not lose Souls in the attempt, they are incentivized to take advantage of this ability to gain Humanity. In turn, this Humanity can be spend to allow other players to join their game and hopefully gain an advantage in fighting many of the game's bosses. Both the aid of other players and the Souls obtained in these multiplayer events have a direct, positive influence on one's progression in the game.

Again, observe the difference between these two games. To the player who is only looking to complete the main story of the game, the invasions in Watch_Dogs are a waste of time. If they perform well, the rewards they provide won't help them in their ultimate goal, designed only to be used in online challenges. Dark Souls goes in a different direction. Even if a player only wants to beat the game, there is still a strong incentive to partake in the online invasions, or at least make oneself open to them. The aid of cooperative partners can greatly increase one's odds of successfully defeating a boss. Furthermore, there is a chance to earn more Souls and Humanity, which are used to further tip the odds in their favor. As someone who rarely participates in a game's online component, I still found myself making use of it in my journey through Lordran.

When Watch_Dogs was in development, Ubisoft said that while players could disable the option for others to invade their game, they considered leaving them on to be the "best" way to play. Unfortunately, the facts aren't in their favor. Without a way to prepare for them, or a strong reason to keep them enabled in the first place, it makes more sense for players to not even bother. As Dark Souls demonstrates, it didn't have to be this way. As rudimentary as they are, if Ubisoft had been a little smarter about the implementation, they could have been a seamlessly integrated and enjoyable aspect of the final product.

#92: Dark Souls: The Use of Estus

From Software is very skilled at what they do. Coming off of my Demon's Souls playthrough not too long ago, I continued on into its spiritual sequel: Dark Souls. While Demon's Souls allowed players to gather and grind for healing items, Dark Souls uses a new system to manage health. The first NPC that players interact with will give them an item called the Estus Flask. This flask has a finite number of charges, and consuming one of these charges heals the player. When resting at a bonfire, a safe haven where players can recover their health and manage their inventory, this flask will be recharged.

What I found was that this one change had a profound effect on the game's design. The most obvious of these changes is that the ability to mend wounds becomes limited. In Demon's Souls, there were several varieties of healing grass, and players could hold up to 99 tufts of each type. Personally, I recall constantly have at least 40 or 50 tufts of whatever grasses I was able to obtain at any given point during my playthrough. Towards the end, I had so much that I couldn’t pick up any more. In fact, grass was so plentiful that I had 99 tufts both on my person, and in the excess-item stash.This is definitely not the case in Dark Souls. Resting at a bonfire will only fill the Estus Flask up to 5 charges. It is possible to upgrade bonfires so that this limit is raised up to a maximum of 20. Doing so requires the use of “Humanity”, an uncommon resource that, like souls, is lost on death. The act of “kindling” a bonfire is rare for this reason. During my playthrough, I only upgraded most bonfires enough to hold 10 charges in the Estus Flask.

The difference in these limits strongly manifested itself in my playstyle. If a fight left me with even a small scratch during my adventures in Demon's Souls, I would immediately consume a tuft of healing grass (or several, depending on how wounded I was) before moving on. With 99 tufts in my back pocket, there was nothing stopping me from making use of one or two.

In Dark Souls, this same decision became a much more tactical choice. When I finished a battle with only minor damage, it would be smarter to keep going without using the Estus Flask to heal, because that healing will be more useful later on. Once I figured out where a stage's boss was and how to get to them, it was imperative to take as little damage as I could so I could save Estus Flask charges for the boss fight, where I would need them the most. Even without the looming threat of an impending boss, running out of healing while exploring a stage was a big enough threat that there is always a natural reluctance to avoid using it when I didn’t have to.

If a single run of a level in Dark Souls was going badly enough, me being badly injured surprisingly early on and heavily imbibing of the Estus Flask, a choice needed to be made. I would often seriously consider whether it was wise to keep going, or to just return to the bonfire and try again. While bonfires do recharge the Estus Flask and mend any lingering wounds, resting at them also respawns every single enemy at full strength. In other words, trekking back to the bonfire and restoring my lost Estus is also resigning myself to starting an area over again almost from scratch. Through the Estus Flask, Dark Souls moved away from the war of attrition that Demon's Souls sometimes wandered into. Instead, every area is a test of not just character build and player skill, but also of the ability to manage resources.

The Estus Flask also lessened Dark Souls’s need for grinding, especially in comparison to its predecessor. Despite having large quantities of healing grass in the original Demon's Souls, repeated attempts to clear areas and fight bosses could and would deplete reserves. This meant that it would eventually be necessary to revisit old areas and grind for additional grass to replenish the player's supplies. In the early game, I frequently found myself returning to the Boletarian Palace in between boss attempts, once my grass count had fallen below 20, to gather more. Consequently, this meant that the time between boss attempts would sometimes be a little too long.

The Estus Flask fixes this problem. Since one can no longer grind for restoratives, there exists no incentive nor need to do so. For this reason, the downtime between boss encounters is reduced only to the time it takes for one to get from the nearest bonfire to the boss chamber. Even though my overall playthrough of Dark Souls was longer than that of my Demon's Souls playthrough, this reduced time between boss attempts gave the illusion of an accelerated pace. I could fight a boss as many times as necessary to defeat it without having to stop and grind for healing items, which is a boon in the Souls franchise.

Including the Estus Flask could be seen as a minor, seemingly meaningless addition. In truth, it is one of the biggest, most vital changes that came with the transition from Demon’s Souls to Dark Souls. This one change transformed the dungeoneering from a gradual and methodical war of attrition between the enemy forces and the player’s healing reserves to a test of how well they can management resources. When it comes time to brave the stronger enemies and boss encounters, it also accelerates the pace of repeated attempts. This kind of attention to detail is why people love the Souls games more than anything else. Each new design decision is carefully considered before it is implemented and the final product is all the strong for it.  

The Texture Pop: Episode 44: Squid Inkorporated

0:02:05 Viewer Questions
"What you do guys think about the graphics of the Fallout 4 trailer?"
They're fine. We mostly spent this time talking about what we expect of the new game and how ugly the other Fallout games were.

"Have any of you guys gotten around to playing The Witcher 3 yet?"
No.



0:13:40 Gaming News
XCOM 2 revealed
We talk about the change from a united world gov't to a ragtag group of rebels, PC exclusivity, and snake boobs.

Uwe Boll hates all of us.
There's no reason to include this story other than the fact that I find it funny.



0:29:55 I finished Bravely Default
Finally. And I've even wrote a piece about how it criticized the standard JRPG plot.



0:31:50 I started playing Dark Souls.
I never would've guessed myself to be a fan of this series, but I totally am. There are just so many good game design decisions on display with Dark Souls and Demon's Souls that you could (and people have) wrote essays on it.



0:53:30 My friend Ryu and I played Resident Evil 2: Revelations (with Share Play)
Since the game had no online co-op, we needed to use Share Play for it to work. Share Play is fine, but it's something I should have had to use to play co-op.
As for the game itself, it's a good game in co-op. The two of us worked very well together. If you've a friend to play with, it's worth checking out.



1:06:55 Sam played The Witcher 1
And he likes the game much more than most of the people I talk to do. Most other people I know hate that game. It's interesting to hear a new viewpoint on the game.
"[The combat] isn't bad. It's just not entertaining." - Sam Callahan on The Witcher



1:24:40 Chris played Splatoon.
At this point, you know what that game is. I don't need to say anymore.
We came up with the title during this segment.



1:44:30 Wrapping Up
My Bravely Default article.
Sam's art blog.
Garrett's stream
Interactive Friction (Watch_Dogs)

The Texture Pop: Episode 8: This Is Not a Destiny Podcast

I don't know exactly how it happened... but it happened. We brought up Destiny as a one-off joke in the intro, and we somehow spent almost a significant chunk of the podcast talking about it. The best part is that none of us own the game, so we have no reason to really give out our opinion on it. Garrett and I played the beta, but that's it (though I hear not much has changed between then and the main release).

And that really hampered the rest of the cast, because it left us much less time to really talk about what we wanted to talk about. Although we continuous fail to do so, we really are trying to shorten up these podcasts. It's just that one conversation leads to another, which leads to another. By the time we realize it, we've spent 20 minutes discussing cupcakes and no one has any idea why that is.
It's both the shows greatest strength and weakness.

Having said that, here's the show.



The MP3 of this episode can be found here.

0:00:00 Introduction
Sam, I just want you to know that THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!

0:03:34 Viewer Question
"Have you guys ever played the original Unreal or Unreal 2? If so, what did you think of them?"
My youth betrays me when these types of questions come up. Not only are these games before my time more often than not, but even if they were from my time, I haven't been using my PC for gaming for very long. I've only had a computer capable of playing smaller games fairly well for a few years now, so I missed out/am missing out on many good PC games. In many ways, I'm still playing catch-up. Part of me hopes that when I graduate college, I'll be able to upgrade to a really good gaming PC and get much deeper into it. Until then, I have other things I need to use my money for.

0:08:50 Chris has a question about manga.
While I myself don't read a lot of manga, I have many friends who do. Sam is very right, MangaFox is the place to go for manga. Though I am less familiar with it, Sam also recommended All Mangas Reader to check out.
As a child, I used to read many of the popular Shonen Jump manga, but not many of the less known ones. Growing up, money became more tight, and when it came time to start cancelling subscriptions, Shonen Jump was one of the first to go. When my friends introduced me to MangaFox much later, I was already too far behind and didn't want to spend all that time playing catch up.
I only really gave up on manga because I used to be really into Naruto, but a particular moment in the series pretty much destroyed any interest I had in it. After Pain killed so many characters, and then almost immediately brought them back to life, I stopped caring. It showed me that death is completely meaningless. Once that happens, it becomes much harder to invest yourself in the events that go on, since you know they is a good chance they will be made meaningless.
Is it unfair to judge all mange/anime because on one? Yes. Will that stop me from doing precisely that? No.
Having said that, that isn't just a problem you see in manga/anime. ANY series that goes on for too long with suffer from that. That's probably why my favorite animes (Code Geass and Death Note, for the record) only had two seasons and ended before they had a chance to turn into crap. Sam has recommended a lot of anime to me, and I probably should watch a few of them sometime.

0:21:26 I joke about Destiny... and come to regret it.
I'm sorry listeners. I truly am.
I still can't fathom why they wouldn't put the database containing all the game's story in the actual game, even as just a text file. It boggles the mind. The database exists in RPGs for precisely that reason. Some people don't care about story, but the ones that do can look up any extra details they might be curious about.
This game was clearly over-hyped, even worse than Watch_Dogs was. It's not what I would call a bad game, but it is totally outclassed by many of its contemporaries. Honestly, if Destiny interests you, you are simply better off playing Borderlands 2.
In the premier episode of this podcast, I made a joke that Destiny was about "fighting the darkness with my keyblade," but it is worse than that. Shit all you want about Kingdom Hearts, but it has characters than make an impact, with their own personalities and motivations. Furthermore, light and darkness are very strongly defined concepts. Destiny lacks both of these.
I just cannot see the appeal of it. It doesn't even seem all that ambitious to me. In fact, the game looks very safe.

0:41:05 Chris talks a bit more about Serious Sam (and we stop talking about Destiny)
Hearing Chris talk about Serious Sam 3 on the 360 really, really sucks. That should NEVER happen on a console. There really isn't an excuse for that. If the devs didn't have time to port it to the console properly, they shouldn't release it on that console.
Even on the PC, some of the things Chris is talking about are simply inexcusable. I get the distinct impression that the developers were probably pressed in terms of either time or money, possibly both. Most developers don't release games in a state like that unless they have to, because they take pride in their work. What a shame.

0:48:45 Chris talks about Fist of the North Star and Dynesty Warriors-esque games.
Not much for me too add here, unfortunately. It's Dynesty Warriors, you either know about it or you don't.

0:51:30 The conversation transitions into Gundam, then Zoids.
It has been so long since I watched the Gundam anime that most of the finer details elude me. All I remember is some anime dude putting on a rubber suit, stepping into a cockpit, and then air boxing the shit out of other robots.
For some reason, I have significantly stronger memories of Zoids. Though many names elude me, the characters, faces, and overall storylines are still in my mind. This is probably because I kept up with the series with greater frequency as a child.

I should apologize for my belligerence during this segment. There were two main reasons for that. One of them is something you might have noticed from the recording. I was sick, and my voiced might have given that away.
The other reason is that I has to be up super early for work, so I didn't want the recording to go on for too long.

1:00:55 I am getting sick of Project X Zone.
It was a very interesting game at first. However, the game doesn't really add a lot in terms of variety as it goes on.
Oh sure, the initial objective might vary from mission to mission. However, once that is complete, the game will ALWAYS make you kill everything afterward. At the start, the game is content with making you simply kill a boss to end a mission. However, that stops really early on.
As a result, one single chapter (in other words, one battle) can take over an hour to win, sometimes more than 2 hours. And the game has 48 chapters. The game does have a quicksave, but since I only play for 20 minutes at a time (the length of my commute to either work or school), I don't feel like I'm making progress.
It's boring, it's slow, and it's annoying.

1:05:33 I play more Digital Devil Saga
On the other hand, this game has been getting more and more interesting as I play. It's like most SMT games in that it is much more important to get the right skills than to level up. With the right setup, a low level party can easily topple a high level boss by striking weaknesses to get extra turns and using their own skills to absorb enemy attacks.
As for the story, it's good, but even in this space here, I would not be able to explain it. I know it's weird to ask you to trust me on that, but I'm asking you to trust me on that.

1:12:05 I tell the cast that I've been sick.
Y'know. I just assumed everyone used Petroleum Jelly to heal dry skin on their nose when they got sick. I was surprised that Sam was surprised.
Tissues, Petroleum Jelly, and Cold Medicine... I try to make sure I have all three readily available when I am sick.

1:18:35 Garrett played Half-Life 2 and League of Legends: Ascension .
I wish I knew a bit more about League, because I'm always at a loss with regards to what to put down here whenever Garrett talks about that game. I'm not a huge MOBA guy, so I don't get into them. I'm the kind of gamer who needs a sense that I advancing towards some goal, typically the advancement of a story, in order to keep playing. In multiplayer games, I don't typically get that, so I don't play them too often except to hang out with friends.

1:28:18 Garrett purchased FaceRig and Among the Sleep.
FaceRig is technically more of a software than a game, but it still sounds really cool. Basically, it's a program that maps your facial movements onto a 3D character, though a low-res webcam. It's still in testing, but the developers are apparently comfortable enough to put it out to the general public.
This brings us to the general topic of Steam Early Access. Like Greenlight before it, Early Access has a lot of problems associated with it. I still don't know if I support or renounce the concept, as there are very strong cases for its inclusion and its removal from Steam.

1:31:55 I ask the cast if they prefer the close-garden or open approach to Steam.
I ask this mostly out of curiosity. Again, I haven't fully formed my opinion on the matter. I think there is some nuance to the issue.
In either case, some quality-control should be taking place. I think that much is clear.

1:37:40 Garrett talks about his Game Design class.
It is interesting how many parallels there are between the classes Garrett goes through and what I go through. I am going for a general Bachelor's of Science in Computer Science, with a concentration in Game Design. Garrett is going through a specialized Game Design class.
In terms of programming, you can teach a lot by just asking students to program video games. All sorts of skills are necessary for even the simplest games. As you advance to higher level courses, this becomes less true, but it is still interesting to take note of.
Having said that, the pitches Garrett talks about from his class all seem really bad, just on a fundamental level.

1:47:20 Sam has been playing Diablo 3.
And he is super-bored by it. Then again, his character sounds super OP. Not much more to say about it.

1:53:00 Sam finished the new Strider game.
Not much to say about that.

1:55:45 Sam got to play the Dark Souls 2 DLC
And it's somehow difficult even by Dark Souls standards, which I thought was impossible.

1:58:50 Sam watches non-David Cage movies.
And they sound interesting enough for me to want to check out at some point.
Though at this point, I actually had to drop out of the podcast because I really needed to wake up early the next day.

2:12:25 Sam finished Muramasa: Rebirth.
And I am a bit sad I missed out on that. I mean, it would be me gushing about the game, but I would have loved to talk about it.

2:13:30 The guys wrap up the cast without me.
At least the guys are aware of how ungodly long this particular session seemed to run too. I wonder how much more bearable it would have been if I wasn't literally sick and tired. They aren't wrong about us being able to talk forever. These types of discussions, even outside the cast, are fairly normal for us. That's just how we roll, I suppose.
As for shout-outs, I wrote an article on RPG Combat I forgot that I wanted to talk about during the cast. I'll make sure to bring it up next week.

The Texture Pop: Episode 7: SPACE DRAGONS BRO!

The Texture Pop returns for another week of craziness. Everyone showed up for the recording session, so the cast was back to its usual shenanigans, albeit a more muted variety of it.

You see, most of us were completely exhausted when we started recording, and that only got worse as the show went on. Sam was getting a lot of hours at work, Garrett had some issues he was dealing with, and I was doing off-site training for work (at a location an hour away from my house) and had only just gotten home a few hours prior to recording.
And Chris, Chris can stuff it with his energy.

The MP3 version of this podcast can be found here:

0:00:00 Introduction
Just an FYI, I get weird when I'm tired, which can explain some of the behavior at the start of the cast.

0:02:20 Viewer Questions
"Do you guys have any favorite gaming-related media?"

I mention the Mass Effect novels in this segment. Though I stand behind the first three novel, I reject any notion that final novel is good.
The document referring to all the plot holes in it is here. (It's only 16 pages.)
And here's a link to (screw) Kai Leng: Cereal Killer.

Garrett reminds me of .hack, which makes me bring up just how much I love .hack. Through the games are fairly mediocre, the lore and story is fantastic. Its premise is fairly unique among video game plots, and it had a very distinct feel to it. I could've sworn that he brought up the subject, but listening to this recording makes it clear than I did.

"Do you guys have any franchises that you would like to be turned into a game, and what would you want that game to be like?"
All the properties that I really love have one of three problems associated with them, in regards to this question.

• The franchise started as a game, or already has games for it.
• The franchise does not feel like it would work as a game, in an interactive space.
• I would never trust a developer to accurately capture the spirit of the franchise in a video game for.

It's an interesting thought question though, and I'd be interested in any responses from you guys to this question.

0:36:25 Sam bought Grid: Auto Sport

Because Dirt 3 uses Games For Windows Live.

...No one likes GWFL. At least that service is on the way out.

And we talk about that and other racing games, so I start to clock out. I distinctly recall it being really difficult to keep my eyes open during this segment. (I was really tired.)

0:41:25 Sam picked up the new Strider game.
I don't have much of a frame of reference for the Strider franchise, so I honestly cannot elaborate much upon what Sam and Chris were talking about.
What they do start talking about, that might be of interest, is the necessity to upgrade PC hardware to keep up with current games. This is honestly probably one of the biggest reasons I stick to consoles. My funds, especially as a college student, are extremely limited, so I try to spend them wisely.

0:47:11 Sam is still not playing the Dark Souls DLC and touched Murdered: Soul Suspect
I think the behavior Sam exhibits while trying to get to the DLC is completely understandable. I remember, after about the 30-35 hour mark in Dragon Age: Origins, where I was just getting so sick of the game and just wanted to be done with it and move on to something else. It's not the exact same, but it's comparable.
As for Murdered: Soul Suspect, I have an impressions piece on it if you are interested.
We also briefly discuss Early Access in this segment.

0:53:30 Garrett played a bit of Watch_Dogs
I do find it really interesting that myself, Chris "Campster" Franklin of Errant Signal, and Patrick Klepek of Giant Bomb all found Aiden Pearce to be irredeemable. None of us had any knowledge of the other's thoughts, but we all agree.
Aside from that, Watch_Dogs is okay, but super overhyped. It's not honestly fairly bad overall, though it has some qualities which can be refined into a truly great game.

0:59:45 Garrett got free movies from his library.
Include Citizen Kane, which is the Citizen Kane of movies.

1:01:05 Garrett played Borderlands 2 and League of Legends
I don't like Borderlands 2 much because it's one of those games where you need other people to have a good time. Playing by yourself is just incredibly boring.
As for League of Legends, those MOBA communities sound really, really shitty. It's really sad to see. People take their entertainment WAY too seriously.

We do get into a conversation regarding LoL's story. While I don't know anything about it, what I've heard makes it sound really bad.

1:15:35 I finish Devil Summoner 2.
And I wrote an impressions piece on it.
I really do not understand why designers make dungeons and levels as long as they do. I cannot stand long dungeon crawls. TEN HOURS for one dungeon is OVERKILL. I get angry after an hour.
Aside from that though, the game is a very good Shin Megami Tensei game. I'd easily recommend it to anyone who likes JRPGs and is interested in getting into SMT.

1:21:25 I am playing Digital Devil Saga.
Even among SMT games, this game is incredibly unique, mostly because you never gain any new demons. Instead, you develop your character's demonic powers as they progress through the game.
It's a very bizarre game, and I look forward to finishing it.

As for silent protagonists, I tend to like them in games. They serve a very important role, especially in SMT games, because they typically serve as player-avatars more than characters in their own right. Of course, ultimately it depends on the game for if its a good idea.

1:28:30 Chris bought the Serious Sam Collection
Serious Sam is a franchise I really need to take the time to playthough at some point. Everything I hear about it indicates that it would be right up my alley. Unfortunately, it's another one of those franchises that I don't know enough about it to make any additional commentaries.
I was also completely unaware that Serious Sam had an RPG. Calling in "The Random Encounter" is quite clever, so props to the developers for that.

1:43:30 Chris talks about Mortal Kombat X and DLC
And yet another series I don't know much about. This has been a fairly light annotations because I don't know a lot about many of these topics.
However, I do love how Chris remarks about how game developers have trained us to just wait until all the DLC is out, and then get it in a single go with the "Ultimate Edition". I sometimes wonder how that behavior affects the sales of games with DLC.

1:48:30 Chris and Sam talk about DOA5 and Virtua Fighter
And I was honestly beginning to fall asleep during the recording. Took all of my willpower to stay awake.

1:55:00 We start talking movies until the end of the episode.
And Micheal Bay is still bad.

2:02:20 Conclusion
I was so tired that I FORCED this to end.